Mitchell | Hamline Law School Sued Over Pathway Program Open Only To Black Students

William Jacobson (Cornell), Racially-Exclusionary Mentorship Program At Mitchell Hamline Law School Challenged By Equal Protection Project:

[W]e have filed a Civil Rights Complaint ... with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education, against Mitchell Hamline School of Law (St. Paul, MN) regarding a race-based mentorship program open only to black students.

From the Complaint:

We bring this civil rights complaint against the Mitchell Hamline School of Law (“Hamline Law”) for supporting and hosting on its campus a racially-discriminatory mentorship program for aspiring lawyers entitled the MABL Law School Pathways program.

As detailed and documented below, only “Black Minnesota students” are allowed to participate in this program. Applicants who do not meet the race-based criteria are ineligible. The meetings take place at and are promoted by Hamline Law, with Hamline Law staff involvement.

Because the program discriminates based on race and skin color, it violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VI”) and its implementing regulations. ...

Under the MABL Law School Pathways program (“MABL Program”), “[t]en to twenty juniors, seniors, and alums of Minnesota universities and colleges are selected each year as ‘MABL Pathways Scholars.’ Upon admittance to the Program, the MABL Pathways Scholars participate in boot camp-type pre-law school programming.” The program’s mission is “to empower Black students in Minnesota to succeed in law school and the legal profession.” ...

Fox 9, Mitchell Hamline Sued For Racial Discrimination in ‘Pathways’ Program

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