特朗普政府將鼓勵(lì)大學(xué)招生忽略種族因素

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will encourage the nation’s school superintendents and college presidents to adopt race-blind admissions standards, abandoning an Obama administration policy that called on universities to consider race as a factor in diversifying their campuses, Trump administration officials said.

華盛頓——特朗普政府官員表示，政府將鼓勵(lì)全國(guó)學(xué)校管理者和大學(xué)校長(zhǎng)采用無視種族的招生標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，放棄奧巴馬政府要求大學(xué)將種族視為校園多元化的一個(gè)因素。

Last November, Attorney General Jeff Sessions asked the Justice Department to re-evaluate past policies that he believed pushed the department to act beyond what the law, the Constitution and the Supreme Court had required, Devin M. O’Malley, a Justice Department spokesman said. As part of that process, the Justice Department rescinded seven policy guidances from the Education Department’s civil rights division Tuesday.

司法部發(fā)言人德文·M·奧馬利(Devin M. O'Malley)說，去年11月，司法部長(zhǎng)杰夫·塞申斯(Jeff Sessions) 認(rèn)為過去的一些政策促使司法部做出了超出法律、憲法和最高法院要求的行動(dòng)，他要求司法部對(duì)這些政策進(jìn)行重新評(píng)估。作為該評(píng)估過程的一部分，司法部于周二取消了教育部民權(quán)辦公室頒發(fā)的七項(xiàng)政策指導(dǎo)。

“The executive branch cannot circumvent Congress or the courts by creating guidance that goes beyond the law and — in some instances — stays on the books for decades,” O’Malley said.

“行政部門不能通過制定超越法律的指導(dǎo)方案來規(guī)避國(guó)會(huì)或法院，在某些情況下，這些指導(dǎo)方案會(huì)被記錄在案長(zhǎng)達(dá)數(shù)十年之久，”奧馬利說。

The Supreme Court has steadily narrowed the ways that schools can consider race when trying to diversify their student bodies. But it has not banned the practice.

最高法院已逐步減少了學(xué)校在試圖令學(xué)生群體多樣化時(shí)就種族因素所采取的措施。但它并沒有禁止這種做法。

Now, affirmative action is at a crossroads. The Trump administration is moving against any use of race as a measurement of diversity in education. And the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy at the end of this month will leave the court without its swing vote on affirmative action and allow President Donald Trump to nominate a justice opposed to a policy that for decades has tried to integrate elite educational institutions.

現(xiàn)在，平權(quán)行動(dòng)正處于十字路口。特朗普政府正在繼續(xù)反對(duì)一切以種族衡量教育多樣性的措施。安東尼·肯尼迪(Anthony Kennedy)大法官將于本月底退休，離開最高法庭，這令最高法院關(guān)于平權(quán)行動(dòng)的投票失去了搖擺票，唐納德·特朗普總統(tǒng)亦可提名一位新法官，反對(duì)一項(xiàng)幾十年來試圖整合精英教育機(jī)構(gòu)的政策。

A highly anticipated case is pitting Harvard against Asian-American students who say one of the nation’s most prestigious institutions has systematically excluded some Asian-American applicants to maintain slots for students of other races. That case is clearly aimed at the Supreme Court.

哈佛大學(xué)對(duì)亞裔學(xué)生案是一個(gè)備受矚目的案例，學(xué)生們稱，這個(gè)國(guó)家最負(fù)盛名的學(xué)府之一有計(jì)劃有步驟地排除了一些亞裔申請(qǐng)者，以便為其他種族的學(xué)生保留名額。該案件顯然希望上訴到最高法院。

“The whole issue of using race in education is being looked at with a new eye in light of the fact that it’s not just white students being discriminated against, but Asians and others as well,” said Roger Clegg, president and general counsel of the conservative Center for Equal Opportunity. “As the demographics of the country change, it becomes more and more problematic.”

“不僅白人學(xué)生受到歧視，而且亞裔和其他群體也受到歧視，因此在教育中考慮種族這件事正在從整體上被重新審視，”保守組織平等機(jī)會(huì)中心(Center for Equal Opportunity)主席兼法律總顧問羅杰·克萊格(Roger Clegg)說。“隨著國(guó)家人口結(jié)構(gòu)的變化，問題越來越多。”

The Obama administration believed that students benefit from being surrounded by diverse classmates, so in 2011 the administration offered schools a potential road map to establishing affirmative action policies that could withstand legal scrutiny. The guidance was controversial at the time that it was issued for its far-reaching interpretation of the law. Justice officials said that pages of hypothetical scenarios offered in the guidance were particularly problematic as they clearly bent the law to specific policy preferences.

奧巴馬政府認(rèn)為，置身多樣化的同學(xué)之中會(huì)令學(xué)生受益，因此在2011年，該政府為學(xué)校提供了一份經(jīng)得住法律審查、建設(shè)平權(quán)行動(dòng)政策的潛在方案。這份指導(dǎo)方案在發(fā)布時(shí)頗有爭(zhēng)議，有人認(rèn)為它在闡釋法律方面走得太遠(yuǎn)。司法官員表示，指導(dǎo)方案中關(guān)于情景假設(shè)的幾頁(yè)特別成問題，因?yàn)樗鼈冿@然是在根據(jù)具體的政策偏好歪曲法律。

In a pair of policy guidance documents, the Obama Education and Justice departments told elementary and secondary schools and college campuses to use “the compelling interests” established by the court to achieve diversity. They concluded that the Supreme Court “has made clear such steps can include taking account of the race of individual students in a narrowly tailored manner.”

在兩份政策指導(dǎo)文件中，奧巴馬時(shí)期的教育部和司法部要中小學(xué)以及大學(xué)基于最高法院確立的“令人信服的利益”來實(shí)現(xiàn)多樣性。它們總結(jié)道，最高法院“明確表示，這些措施可以包括以嚴(yán)密關(guān)聯(lián)的方式考慮學(xué)生個(gè)體的種族”。

The Trump administration’s decisions Tuesday brought government policy back to the George W. Bush administration guidances. The Trump administration did not formally reissue Bush-era guidance on race-based admissions, but, in recent days, officials did repost a Bush administration affirmative action policy document online.

特朗普政府周二的決定將讓政府政策回歸到喬治·W·布什(George W. Bush)政府的指導(dǎo)方案。特朗普政府沒有正式重新發(fā)布布什時(shí)代關(guān)于種族問題的入學(xué)指導(dǎo)方案，但是，最近幾天，政府官員確實(shí)在網(wǎng)上重新發(fā)布了布什政府的平權(quán)行動(dòng)政策文件。

That document states, “The Department of Education strongly encourages the use of race-neutral methods for assigning students to elementary and secondary schools.”

該文件指出，“教育部強(qiáng)烈鼓勵(lì)使用種族中立的方法將學(xué)生分配到中小學(xué)。”

For the past several years, that document had been replaced by a note declaring that the policy had been withdrawn. The Bush policy is now published in full, with no note attached. It reaffirmed its view in 2016 after a Supreme Court ruling that said that schools could consider race as one factor among many.

過去幾年里，這個(gè)文件為一個(gè)備注所取代，其中寫著這一政策已經(jīng)被撤回了。布什政府的政策如今已經(jīng)全文公布，不帶有任何備注。在最高法院在一份裁決中表示學(xué)校應(yīng)當(dāng)將種族作為多種因素一道納入考量后，2016年，它重申了自己的觀點(diǎn)。

In that case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a white woman claimed she was denied admission because of her race, in part because the university had a program that admitted significant numbers of minorities who ranked in the top 10 percent of their class.

在那個(gè)案件，即費(fèi)舍訴德州大學(xué)奧斯汀分校案(Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin)中，一名白人女子稱自己因?yàn)榉N族而沒能被錄取，而部分原因是因?yàn)檫@所大學(xué)有一個(gè)項(xiàng)目，該項(xiàng)目錄取了占據(jù)其班級(jí)排名前10%的大批少數(shù)族裔學(xué)生。

“It remains an enduring challenge to our nation’s education system to reconcile the pursuit of diversity with the constitutional promise of equal treatment and dignity,” Kennedy wrote for the 4-3 majority.

“要在多元的追求和憲法對(duì)平等待遇和尊嚴(yán)的承諾之間達(dá)成一致，仍然是我國(guó)教育體系面臨的一個(gè)長(zhǎng)期挑戰(zhàn)，”肯尼迪大法官就這個(gè)以4比3票通過的裁決寫道。

The Trump administration’s plan would scrap the existing policies and encourage schools not to consider race at all. The new policy would not have the force of law, but it amounts to the official view of the federal government. School officials who keep their admissions policies intact would do so knowing that they could face a Justice Department investigation or lawsuit, or lose federal funding from the Education Department.

特朗普政府的計(jì)劃將拋棄現(xiàn)有的政策，鼓勵(lì)學(xué)校完全不考慮種族。新的政策將不具備法律效力，但相當(dāng)于聯(lián)邦政府的官方觀點(diǎn)。保持錄取政策不變的學(xué)校官員知道自己會(huì)面臨司法部調(diào)查或起訴，或者失去來自教育部的聯(lián)邦資助。

A senior Justice Department official pushed back against the idea that these decisions are about rolling back protections for minorities. He said they are hewing the department closer to the letter of the law.

對(duì)于這些決定事關(guān)收回對(duì)少數(shù)族裔保護(hù)的觀點(diǎn)，司法部一名高級(jí)官員予以了反駁。他表示他們正在讓該部進(jìn)一步依從法律條文。

He noted that rolling back guidance is not the same thing as a change of law, so that the decision to rescind technically would not have a legal effect on how the government defends or challenges affirmative-action related issues.

他指出，收回指導(dǎo)方案與更改法律不同，所以從技術(shù)上說，取消指導(dǎo)的決定不會(huì)對(duì)政府如何辯護(hù)或質(zhì)疑與平權(quán)行動(dòng)相關(guān)的問題產(chǎn)生法律影響。

The move comes at a moment when conservatives see an opportunity to dismantle affirmative action.

這一舉措公布之時(shí)，正值保守派看到了一個(gè)解除平權(quán)行動(dòng)的機(jī)會(huì)。

Sessions has said his prosecutors will investigate and sue universities over discriminatory admissions policies. And the conservative-backed lawsuit against Harvard is being pushed by the same group, the Project on Fair Representation, that pressed Fisher.

塞申斯已經(jīng)表示過，他的檢察官們將調(diào)查并且起訴那些存在歧視性錄取政策的大學(xué)。此外，由保守派支持、針對(duì)哈佛大學(xué)的起訴正在由向費(fèi)舍施壓，要求其行動(dòng)的同一群人推動(dòng)，即公平代表運(yùn)動(dòng)(Project on Fair Representation)。

Anurima Bhargava, who headed civil rights enforcement in schools for the Justice Department under President Barack Obama and co-authored the Obama-era guidance, said that the policy withdrawal was timed for brief filings in the Harvard litigation, due at the end of the month.

貝拉克·奧巴馬總統(tǒng)任內(nèi)在司法部負(fù)責(zé)學(xué)校落實(shí)民事權(quán)、共同起草奧巴馬時(shí)代指導(dǎo)方案的阿奴利馬·巴爾加瓦(Anurima Bhargava)表示，撤回該政策是為了趕上哈佛訴訟案于本月底遞交摘要的時(shí)機(jī)。

“This is a wholly political attack,” Bhargava said. “And our schools are the place where our communities come together, so our schools have to continue to promote diversity and address segregation, as the U.S. Constitution demands.”

“這完全是政治攻擊，”巴爾加瓦表示。“而且我們的學(xué)校是社區(qū)集合起來的地方，所以我們的學(xué)校必須要繼續(xù)按照美國(guó)憲法要求的那樣，促進(jìn)多元化，解決隔離問題。”

“It’s part of a broader conservative effort to undermine affirmative action,” said Samuel Bagenstos, a University of Michigan law professor and former Justice Department civil rights lawyer. “It’s something Republican administrations have been doing since Reagan.”

“這是保守派破壞平權(quán)行動(dòng)更大范圍努力的一部分，”密歇根大學(xué)(University of Michigan)法學(xué)教授、前司法部民權(quán)律師塞繆爾·巴格斯托斯(Samuel Bagenstos)說。“這是共和黨政府自里根以來一直在做的事。”

On Friday, the Education Department began laying the groundwork for the guidance decision. It restored on its civil rights website the Bush-era guidance, which had been shuttered by the Obama administration, signaling a shift of the Education Department’s stance on affirmative action, according to a person with knowledge of the decision.

周五，教育部開始為指導(dǎo)方案的決定奠定基礎(chǔ)。它在民權(quán)網(wǎng)站上恢復(fù)了布什時(shí)代的指導(dǎo)方案，而這一方案曾被奧巴馬政府終結(jié)。據(jù)一名熟悉該決定的人士表示，這一舉動(dòng)表明教育部在平權(quán)行動(dòng)上的立場(chǎng)發(fā)生了改變。

A spokeswoman for the Education Department did not respond to repeated inquiries for comment.

教育部一位發(fā)言人沒有回復(fù)置評(píng)的請(qǐng)求。