The Justice Department lent its support to students who are suing Harvard University over affirmative action policies that they claim discriminate¹ against Asian-American applicants², in a case that could have far-reaching consequences for the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

日前，美国司法部向正在起诉哈佛大学的学生提供支持，这些学生称，该大学使用平权行动政策，歧视亚裔美国申请者，该诉讼对于平权法案在大学入学时的使用，将产生深远影响。

In a statement of interest, the department supported the claims of the plaintiffs, a group of Asian-Americans rejected by Harvard.

在一份利益声明中，司法部支持原告，即一群被哈佛拒绝的亚裔美国人的主张。

They contend that Harvard has systematically³ discriminated⁴ against them by artificially capping the number of qualified⁵ Asian-Americans from attending the school to advance less-qualified students of other races.

他们认为，哈佛通过人为限制合格亚裔美国人的入学人数，促进其他种族的不合格学生入学，从而对他们构成系统性歧视。

"Harvard has failed to carry its demanding burden to show that its use of race does not inflict⁶ unlawful racial discrimination on Asian-Americans," the Justice Department said in its filing.

司法部在提交给法院的文件中称：“哈佛未能承担其备受需要的责任，表明其对种族因素的使用不会对亚裔美国人造成非法种族歧视。”

The filing said that Harvard "uses a vague 'personal rating' that harms Asian-American applicants' chances for admission and may be infected with racial bias⁷; engages in unlawful racial balancing; and has never seriously considered race-neutral alternatives in its more than 45 years of using race to make admissions decisions."

该文件称，哈佛“使用模糊的'个人评级'，可能会受到种族偏见的影响，损害亚裔美国申请人的入学机会；实施非法的种族平衡；在超过45年的时间里使用种族因素做出录取决定的过程中，从未认真考虑过种族中立的其他选项。”

The Justice Department has increasingly used such statements of interest to intervene in civil rights cases. Before 2006, such statements appeared only seven times in civil rights-oriented disputes, according to a recent paper by law school student Victor Zapana.

司法部越来越多地利用这种利益声明干预民权案件。根据法学院学生维克多·扎帕纳最近的一篇论文，在2006年之前，这些声明在民权纠纷中只出现了7次。

From 2006 to 2011, they were drafted in at least 242, almost all by the Obama administration on issues such as videotaping police brutality⁸ and ensuring that blind people and their service dogs have access to Uber.

从2006年到2011年，共有至少242个这样的声明，几乎全由奥巴马政府起草，例如给警察的残暴行为拍录像，以及确保盲人及其导盲犬可以使用优步。

But the Trump⁹ administration is turning the same tool against affirmative action in college admissions, a major -- and highly contentious¹⁰ -- legacy¹¹ of the civil rights era, and one that white conservatives have opposed for decades.

但特朗普政府正在使用同样的工具，反对大学录取中的平权行动，它是民权时代一个重大且极具争议性的遗产，几十年来一直遭到白人保守派反对。

In the past few years, the anti-affirmative action cause has been joined by Asian-Americans who argue that they are being held to a higher standard, losing out on coveted¹² slots at places like Harvard as African-Americans, Latinos and other groups get a boost.

在过去的几年里，亚裔美国人加入了反平权行动的行列，他们认为自己被适用了更高的标准，使得他们在竞争哈佛大学入学资格等令人向往的名额时，败给非裔美国人、拉丁裔和其他团体。

A handful of states ban public universities from relying on affirmative action, pushing several toward a model that takes socioeconomic factors into account instead of race.

少数几个州禁止公立大学依靠平权行动，这令一些大学推行更多考虑社会经济因素而不是种族因素的模式。

Public universities in California and Washington have tried to engineer class-based diversity in their student bodies, believing that giving a lift to lower-income students will end up bringing in more minority students as well.

加利福尼亚州和华盛顿州的公立大学试图在他们的学生中设计基于阶级的多样性，他们认为鼓励低收入学生最终会导致更多的少数族裔学生入学。

But these methods have not produced classes with an ethnic¹³ makeup¹⁴ that mirrors that of the states where they have been used, and many selective private universities continue to admit students partly on the basis of race -- though, until Harvard was forced to detail its internal admissions policies recently, few could say how elite¹⁵ universities actually weighed applicants' race.

但是这些方法并没有形成能够反映这些州族裔构成的阶级，而且许多择优录取的私立大学继续部分基于种族录取学生--但是，直到最近哈佛被迫详细介绍其内部招生政策，之前几乎没人能说清，精英大学实际上对申请人的种族是如何考虑的。

Now, universities that factor race into admissions have found a powerful new opponent in the Trump administration, which argued in its filing that the court should deny Harvard's request to dismiss the case before trial.

现在，在招生中考虑种族因素的大学在特朗普政府中有了一个强有力的新对手，司法部在提交的文件中称，法院应该否决哈佛在审判前驳回此案的请求。

The government said Supreme¹⁶ Court rulings require universities considering race in admissions meet several standards. They must define their diversity-related goals and show that they cannot meet those goals without using race as a factor in admissions decisions.

政府表示，最高法院的裁决要求，大学在入学时考虑种族因素，需要符合几个标准。它们必须定义与多样性相关的目标，并表明如果不将种族作为入学决策的一个因素就无法实现这些目标。