Ohio AG Dave Yost warns colleges: Employees could pay if they ignore Supreme Court

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost says his office can't protect public colleges and universities if they run afoul of the new rules banning schools from considering race during admissions.

"Employees of institutions of higher education will face personal risk should they consider race during the admissions process," Yost wrote in a strongly worded letter dated June 30.

The letter was sent one day after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned affirmative action, a 40-year legal precedent that race can play a limited role in college admissions. In that decision, the court's conservative majority ruled that Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment when they used race as one of many factors when considering student applications.

"I am writing to stress the need to comply strictly with the decision’s holding," Yost wrote. "And to warn the higher education community about the dangers that institutions of higher education and institutional employees face by failing to do so."

For example, Yost's legal opinion is that using application essays or other means to discover an applicant's race would be the sort of policy the Supreme Court struck down.

And employees found guilty of such practices might not be protected by qualified immunity, a doctrine that protects public officials from being personally liable in certain situations.

Those protections don't apply when an official violates a "clearly established constitutional right," Yost wrote. "This means employees who use race when making admissions decisions may not be entitled to qualified immunity; any attempt to invoke that doctrine would likely be frivolous, and my office may be unable to raise any qualified immunity defense on your employees’ behalf."

Faculty could be personally liable for damages if they're found guilty.

More: Most Ohio colleges don't use race in admissions. How will court decision affect them?

Only three of Ohio's four-year public institutions (Bowling Green State University, Ohio State University and University of Cincinnati) consider an applicant's race and ethnicity in the admissions process, according to the most recent Common Data Set, a standardized set of questions schools answer about topics like admissions, financial aid and graduation rates.

Cincinnati said in June that it used a series of essays along with demographics and academic records when considering new students but that might not be legal now, according to Yost's letter. "Disguised race-conscious admissions policies are race-conscious admissions policies all the same."

Anna Staver is a reporter for the USA TODAY Network Ohio Bureau, which serves the Columbus Dispatch, Cincinnati Enquirer, Akron Beacon Journal and 18 other affiliated news organizations across Ohio.

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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio colleges could be personally liable for using race in admissions