A civil rights group is fighting old admissions at Harvard University, saying the practice discriminates against students of color by giving an unfair boost to alumni’s predominantly white children.

It’s the latest effort in a growing battle against legacy admissions, the practice of giving admission priority to alumni’s children. Opposition to the practice has grown in the wake of last week’s Supreme Court decision that ended affirmative action in college admissions.

Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based nonprofit, filed the lawsuit Monday on behalf of Black and Latino community groups in New England, alleging that Harvard’s admissions system violates the Civil Rights Act.

Why do we reward children for privileges and benefits built up by previous generations? said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, the group’s executive director. Your family’s last name and the size of your bank account are not a measure of merit and should not affect the college admissions process.

Opponents say the practice is no longer defensible without counterbalance positive action. The court’s ruling says colleges should ignore applicants’ race, activists point out, but schools can still provide a boost to the children of alumni and donors.

A separate campaign is urging the alumni of 30 prestigious colleges to withhold donations until their schools end old admissions. That initiative, led by

the interest group

Ed Mobilizer also targets Harvard and other Ivy League schools.

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President

joe

Biden suggested last week that universities should reconsider the practice, saying that legacy admissions increase privileges rather than opportunities.

Several Democrats in Congress demanded an end to the policy in light of the court’s decision, along with Republicans, including South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who is vying for the GOP presidential nomination.

The new lawsuit is based on Harvard data that came to light amid the affirmative action case that ended up in the Supreme Court. The documents showed that 70% of Harvard’s donor-related and legacy applicants are white, and a legacy being a student means that an applicant is about six times more likely to be admitted.

It draws attention to other colleges that have abandoned the practice over questions about its fairness, including Amherst College and Johns Hopkins University.

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The lawsuit alleges that Harvard’s legacy preference has nothing to do with merit and takes slots away from qualified students of color. It asks the U.S. Department of Education to declare the practice illegal and force Harvard to shut it down as long as the university receives federal funding. Harvard did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.

A spot given to an estate or donor-related applicant is one that is no longer available to an applicant who meets the eligibility criteria purely on merit, the complaint said. If inheritance and donor preferences were removed, it adds, more students of color would be admitted to Harvard.

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The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Chica Project, the African Community Economic Development of New England and the Greater Boston Latino Network.

It’s unclear exactly which schools provide a legacy boost and how much it helps. In California, where state law requires schools to disclose the practice, USC

the University of Southern California

reported that 14% of students admitted last year had family ties to alumni or donors. Stanford reported a similar percentage.

An Associated Press survey of the nation’s most selective colleges last year found that freshman-class legacy students ranged from 4% to 23%. Four schools, Notre Dame, USC, Cornell and Dartmouth, had more legacy students than black students.

Proponents of the policy say it builds an alumni community and encourages donations. A 2022 study from a secretive university in the Northeast found that old college students were more likely to make donations, but the vast majority were white at the expense of diversity.

___The Associated Press education team is supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.