NYC mom challenges discriminatory school admissions policy

Manhattan, New York; April 23, 2026: A Chinese American immigrant and data scientist filed a federal lawsuit today challenging New York City’s Specialized High Schools admissions criteria after her son was denied admission. Yi Fang Chen alleges the criteria were deliberately designed to reduce Asian American enrollment, in violation of the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“New York City rewrote admissions criteria to change the racial makeup of its schools,” said Glenn Roper, senior attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation. “That violates the Equal Protection Clause. The government cannot rig admissions rules to disadvantage students based on race.”

Chen’s son scored near the cutoff on the Specialized High Schools Admissions Test and, under prior rules, would have earned admission to Stuyvesant High School. But in 2019, the City revised its admissions criteria to reserve 20% of seats for students from schools meeting specific eligibility criteria — criteria that were surgically selected to exclude Asian American students.

Chen’s lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks to end the use of admissions criteria designed to produce racial outcomes. A victory would prohibit public schools from engineering admissions to achieve those results.

Pacific Legal Foundation represents Chen free of charge. The case is Yi Fang Chen v. Zohran Mamdani.