The Ivy League imprint on US judiciary, cabinet | Number Theory

Donald Trump and America’s richest and perhaps most prestigious university are fighting right now. After Harvard University refused to accept the Trump administration’s demands, essentially an accommodation of Trump’s political agenda in Harvard’s policies, it has seen its grants being frozen and faced threats that include the withdrawal of its tax-exempt status and a ban on taking foreign students.

The culmination of this battle will likely take place in the US Supreme Court given the different interpretations each party has on the constitutional validity of Trump’s actions. As and when this happens, the justices in the US Supreme Court will have to deal with more than just a dispassionate question of law. This is because an overwhelming majority of the US Supreme Court justices belong to just two elite universities (Harvard and Yale) unlike Trump’s cabinet, which has the lowest share of people from elite institutions in the recent past.