A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday dismissed a race and sex discrimination lawsuit challenging the selection process for New York University School of Law’s flagship law review, saying the anonymous white male plaintiff lacked standing to sue and that his complaint lacked facts to support his allegations.
The plaintiff, identified in court filings as John Doe, is a first-year NYU law student who sought class action status on behalf of current and future white, heterosexual male students who want to participate on the law review.
Student editor positions and other law review staff jobs are prestigious credentials that can open doors to sought-after legal jobs.
Doe lacked standing to sue in part because he hadn’t yet applied to the law review and been denied, and because his allegations that the selection process was discriminatory against white men were “speculative” and “devoid of any factual support,” wrote U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick.
The judge said that the law review’s selection policy, which it revised after Supreme Court’s 2023 decision curtailing affirmative action in college admissions, was “facially neutral.” He added that the plaintiff offered no evidence that law review editors were violating that policy by using resumes and statements of interest to give women or racial minorities an advantage.
Broderick dismissed the case without prejudice, writing that Doe could file a new lawsuit "should his claims ever ripen."
Doe is represented by America First Legal, an organization headed by former Trump adviser Stephen Miller. Conservative lawyer Jonathan Mitchell, who unsuccessfully sued both the NYU Law Review and the Harvard Law Review in 2018 for discrimination, is also on Doe’s legal team.
Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday, nor did an NYU Law spokesperson or Roberta Kaplan of Kaplan Hecker & Fink, who represented the school.
In its January motion to dismiss, NYU called the case unsubstantiated and “half baked.”
Read more:
Conservative group sues NYU, claiming selection of law journal student staff discriminates
NYU says white man's discrimination suit over law review selection is 'half-baked'
