Despite past denials, the Harvard Law Review eliminates more than 85% of submissions for publication based on "author diversity," according to The Washington Free Beacon.
In May, the law review responded to a Free Beacon report by claiming it "does not consider race, ethnicity, gender, or any other protected characteristic as a basis for recommending or selecting a piece for publication."
However, the Free Beacon reported Thursday that the Review eliminates most submissions using a rubric, or set of criteria, that includes asking about "author diversity."
"And 40 percent of journal editors have cited protected characteristics when lobbying for or against articles—at one point killing a piece by an Asian-American scholar, Alex Zhang, after an editor complained in a meeting that 'we have too many Yale JDs and not enough Black and Latino/Latina authors,'" wrote Free Beacon's Aaron Sibarium, citing meeting minutes from the law review's articles committee.
The Free Beacon obtained more than 500 documents from 2024 and 2025. The documents showed that at least 42 different editors considered race or gender when making recommendations in 2024, the outlet said.
Although the law review has said that it vets articles based solely on "their quality and contribution to legal scholarship," the Free Beacon identified at least 87 cases, including 75 published last year alone, that the law review considered protected traits or encouraged members to do so.
One submission included "A LOT of old white men," according to editors, who also complained that an author was "not from an underrepresented background." They also praised one article for citing "predominantly Black singers, rappers, and members of Twitter."
Early last month, the Education Department announced Harvard University will receive no new federal grants until it meets a series of demands from President Donald Trump's administration that seeks to eliminate focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, as well as stopping on-campus anti-Israel protests.
The administration later said eight federal agencies will terminate another $450 million in grants to Harvard University, on top of $2.2 billion in federal funding that it canceled last week.
Harvard filed a legal challenge this month against the Trump administration's block on the school's foreign student visas. On Monday, Massachusetts U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs, appointed by former President Barack Obama, extended the pause on the administration's plans for extreme vetting of foreign student visas for attendees of Harvard, the student newspaper reported.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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