Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College et al

Filing 422

MEMORANDUM in Support re 410 Joint MOTION to Seal Certain Information Filed in Connection with the Parties' Summary Judgment Motions filed by President and Fellows of Harvard College. (Attachments: # 1 Declaration of Robin Worth)(Ellsworth, Felicia)

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR
THE DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON DIVISION
STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC.,
Plaintiff,
Civil Action No. 1:14-cv-14176-ADB

v.
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD
COLLEGE (HARVARD CORPORATION),
Defendant.

HARVARD’S MEMORANDUM OF LAW IN SUPPORT OF ITS
MOTION TO SEAL CERTAIN INFORMATION FILED IN CONNECTION
WITH THE PARTIES’ SUMMARY JUDGMENT MOTIONS
SFFA’s 900 paragraphs of supposedly undisputed facts—many of which are neither
undisputed nor even facts—serve only to confirm that SFFA has now achieved what it was
seeking all along: a public opportunity to present a fundamentally misleading account of the
record to the media. SFFA began this case by filing a Complaint that, as this Court recognized,
sought to “overrule Supreme Court precedent” and hold Harvard to “a legal requirement . . . that
the case law does not support.” Memorandum and Order Granting Motion for Partial Judgment
on the Pleadings, Dkt. 325 at 1-2. Now, SFFA has filed summary judgment papers that blatantly
ignore Federal Rule 56, Local Rule 56.1 (requiring “a concise statement of the material facts of
record as to which … there is no genuine issue to be tried” (emphasis added)), and this Court’s
recent and specific direction that the parties not overburden the Court with facts that are
immaterial, disputed, or both (Dkt. 407 (“Only those facts which bear on dispositive material
issues shall be included in this statement.”)).

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SFFA’s summary judgment filing is not a serious effort to persuade the Court that this
case can be resolved in SFFA’s favor without a trial; it is a concerted public relations effort
orchestrated by an opponent of racial diversity who seeks above all to end the consideration of
race in college admissions. Unable to find any actual documentary or testimonial support for the
purported scheme of intentional discrimination alleged by the Complaint, SFFA instead relies on
distortions of the record and misleading characterizations of data analysis. The so-called “facts”
on which SFFA relies are obviously contested, and Harvard will respond in full to SFFA’s
sensationalist accusations in its opposition brief.
Contrary to SFFA’s inaccurate media statements and rhetoric, Harvard readily agreed that
SFFA could file publicly the core set of documents that bear directly on its claims. Consistent
with this Court’s guidance, the parties’ memoranda in support of their summary judgment
motions contain minimal redactions; from its brief, Harvard redacted just three full sentences
from a single footnote, and—at SFFA’s request—the name, gender, and other potentially
identifying information of SFFA’s standing members. Moreover, the parties’ expert reports—
several hundred pages of statistical analysis—were publicly filed with just a handful of
redactions. And a substantial majority of the exhibits attached to the parties’ statements of
material facts were also filed publicly. After SFFA filed its memorandum, Local Rule 56.1
statement, and exhibits, Harvard reviewed those filings to determine what further unsealing was
appropriate, and has informed SFFA that an additional 40 of its exhibits need not be sealed, and
that the vast majority of the material SFFA redacted from its brief and Local Rule 56.1 statement
can be unredacted.
Yet Harvard and the Court are now forced to engage in this wasteful exercise because
SFFA has taken the untenable position that nearly every document it filed in support of its 900-

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paragraph Rule 56.1 statement should be unsealed. SFFA’s argument is inconsistent with the
law of this Circuit. It ignores the significant confidentiality interests of Harvard’s applicants,
third parties, and Harvard itself. And it is inconsistent with the manner in which SFFA seeks to
treat its own information. SFFA confuses its desire to try this case in the court of public opinion
with the fact that it is this Court that will adjudicate the claims and defenses based on the law.
The documents in question should be maintained under seal. Many of those
documents—including complete application files, “summary sheets” from application files,
internal emails, correspondence with alumni interviewers, and correspondence with high school
guidance counselors—would, if disclosed, risk compromising applicant privacy, which both the
parties and this Court have previously acknowledged provides more than sufficient basis to seal.
A second category of information—including correspondence with alumni, donors, and other
organizations—would, if disclosed, destroy third parties’ reasonable expectations of privacy and
embroil them in a public dispute they did not seek, in a way they certainly did not anticipate
when they corresponded with Harvard. A third category—including Harvard’s internal training
materials, certain details of Harvard’s process for evaluating applications, and statistical
snapshots of Harvard’s tentatively admitted class during the admissions cycle—may, if
disclosed, cause applicants to attempt to adjust their behavior or their applications to what they
believe the documents suggest about Harvard’s admissions criteria, compromising the integrity
of the admissions process. To the extent there is any legally cognizable public interest in these
materials, it cannot outweigh the legitimate privacy interests of parties and non-parties alike.
Contrary to SFFA’s persistent claim that Harvard seeks to hide evidence from public
view, Harvard has every desire for a full and fair adjudication of this case by this Court, and its
positions as to what documents must be sealed or redacted are fully consistent with that desire.

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That result can be achieved without undue harm to Harvard’s confidentiality interests or those of
the many individuals, including Harvard’s applicants and students, who did not seek this
litigation and have every right to avoid being subjected to SFFA’s media campaign. This Court
should maintain under seal the documents or portions thereof that are the subject of this motion,
as described below and listed in Exhibits A, B, and C.
BACKGROUND
In June 2015, the parties jointly proposed, and the Court entered, a Stipulated Protective
Order governing the disclosure and use of each party’s confidential (or “protected”) materials.
Dkt. 55 (“Protective Order”). The Protective Order provides that “any Party wishing to file any
Protected Material must either (1) obtain written permission from the Producing Party to file
such material in the public record, or (2) move the Court for leave to file the Protected Material
under seal.” Dkt. 55 ¶ 13.
Over the course of three years, consistent with its discovery obligations and its
obligations under federal law (including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
(FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g)), Harvard produced to SFFA a wide array of information
including some of its most sensitive documents. The nearly 100,000 pages of documents
Harvard produced include application files, admissions office training materials, internal
communications about applicants and the inner workings of the admissions process,
correspondence with alumni, and voluminous data reflecting the applicant pool and admissions
outcomes. Given the nature of those documents, Harvard designated many of them Confidential
or Highly Confidential under the Protective Order.
SFFA produced only a handful of documents in this litigation and did not turn over any
of its internal documents. In response to Harvard’s discovery requests, SFFA refused to produce

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“internal communications” and other information because, according to SFFA, the Protective
Order was “incapable of safeguarding” its privacy interests. See Dkt. 150 at 9-10. SFFA has
maintained this position even as it aggressively dismissed any comparable interest articulated by
Harvard. Given the one-sided nature of discovery in this case, it is no wonder that SFFA takes
the position that nearly everything should be made public—it has virtually nothing at stake.
Throughout this litigation, the parties have acted in accordance with the Protective
Order’s requirements for filing protected material under seal. In September 2016, for example,
Harvard filed a motion challenging SFFA’s standing that contained information designated
confidential by SFFA, including information about SFFA’s internal structure and operations.
Dkt. 190. Harvard filed an unredacted version of its motion under seal on September 23, 2016,
conferred with SFFA on the proper scope of redactions of SFFA’s confidential material, and
publicly filed a redacted version on September 26, 2016. Id. SFFA raised no objection to having
that dispositive motion filed under seal. Indeed, SFFA followed a similar procedure for its
opposition to that motion, with redactions on all but nine lines of a four-page “Factual
Background” section. Dkt. 204 at 2-6. As its entire basis for filing that document and its
supporting materials under seal, SFFA wrote: “These documents contain information that has
been designed by SFFA and/or Defendant as Confidential and/or Highly Confidential –
Attorneys’ Eyes Only pursuant to the Stipulated Protected Order.” Dkt. 201 at 1. Harvard
assented. Id.
Now that it is Harvard’s confidential internal documents that are at issue, SFFA has
reversed course. According to SFFA, only “the identity of any Harvard applicant or student”
merits protection for disclosure; “[b]eyond that,” SFFA argued in March, “there is no
justification for redacting any other information.” Dkt. 388 at 2-3.

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At an April 10 hearing and in subsequent orders, the Court directed the parties to meet
and confer regarding the confidentiality of materials intended for filing, to publicly file only
redacted summary judgment materials on June 15, and to present any disputes to the Court
thereafter. Apr. 10, 2018 Hearing Tr. 6:24-8:21, 17:15-20; see also Dkts. 404, 408 at 1-2, 409.
As the summary-judgment deadline approached, SFFA informed Harvard that it intended to
publicly file more than 450 documents in support of its motion.1 Harvard agreed that SFFA
could publicly file the majority of those documents, including the materials bearing most directly
on SFFA’s claims. But further agreement proved elusive, as SFFA refused to reconsider its
legally unfounded position that a document may be sealed only if it directly identifies an
applicant or student.
On June 13, the parties filed a joint motion to seal certain portions of their summary
judgment filings, Dkt. 410, which the Court granted, Dkt. 411. On June 15, each party filed an
unredacted set of summary judgment materials under seal and a redacted set on the public
docket. See Dkts. 412-421. The parties’ briefs were lightly redacted, and several of the parties’
expert reports contained no redactions at all. 2 In total, both sides filed 358 exhibits in support of

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At the April 10 hearing, SFFA repeatedly committed to notify Harvard by June 1 of any
confidential documents it sought to file publicly. Tr. 15:12-13, 15:23-16:1, 16:6-9. SFFA
identified certain documents in late May, but did not provide the remaining 201 documents or
depositions until June 6 and June 11, and made additional requests for Harvard’s position on
confidentiality issues as late as June 13—two days before summary judgment papers were due.
Despite SFFA’s identification of hundreds of additional documents long after its proposed June 1
deadline, Harvard provided SFFA with its positions on the confidentiality of all 450 documents
SFFA identified (some of which SFFA ultimately elected not to file) well before the filing
deadline.
2
In a widely distributed media statement that accompanied SFFA’s filings, SFFA
President Edward Blum noted that “[t]here are just a few highlights in the papers filed today,”
and insisted that Harvard’s position that redacted material must remain under seal is “baseless.”
Press Release, SFFA Files Motion for Summary Judgment Against Harvard, Students for Fair
Admissions, https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/sffa-files-motion-for-summary-judgmentagainst-harvard/ (last visited June 22, 2018). It is unclear how Mr. Blum could make that
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their motions for summary judgment, 200 of which were filed publicly. In the days following
the parties’ filings, Harvard has reviewed additional exhibits SFFA submitted in support of its
motion, informed SFFA that another 40 of the 125 exhibits SFFA had previously filed under seal
could be filed publicly, and also agreed to unseal another 24 of the 33 exhibits that Harvard had
initially filed under seal (see Exhibit D). The parties agree that several of the sealed and
redacted exhibits, set forth in Exhibit A, may remain sealed and redacted. The parties disagree as
to whether the balance of the documents, set forth in Exhibits B and C, should remain under seal.
ARGUMENT
“[T]he right to inspect and copy judicial records is not absolute.” Nixon v. Warner
Commc’ns, Inc., 435 U.S. 589, 598 (1978).3 In evaluating whether to seal documents filed with
a court, courts must strike the appropriate balance between the public interest in disclosure and
any “competing private interests” in nondisclosure, “‘in light of the relevant facts and
circumstances of the particular case.’” FTC v. Standard Fin. Mgmt. Corp., 830 F.2d 404,
410-411 (1st Cir. 1987) (quoting Nixon, 435 U.S. at 599).
The public’s right of access “is strongest … for documents introduced at trial,” Bradford
& Bigelow, Inc. v. Richardson, 109 F. Supp. 3d 445, 448 (D. Mass. 2015), and “appreciably
weaker” for “documents that do not serve as the basis for a substantive determination—such as
documents submitted on a motion for summary judgment which is denied, thus leaving a

assertion, since the Protective Order prohibits Mr. Blum from seeing any information Harvard
designated Highly Confidential—Attorneys’ Eyes Only, a designation that applies to many of the
documents at issue.
3
Indeed, it is not clear in this Circuit whether the right even exists as a constitutional
matter in the summary-judgment context. The First Circuit has never agreed “with those courts
extending a [First Amendment] right of public access to documents considered in rulings on
dispositive pretrial motions”—a context that sits “at the farthest reaches of the first amendment
right to attend judicial proceedings.” Anderson v. Cryovac, Inc., 805 F.2d 1, 8, 11 (1st Cir.
1986).
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decision on the merits for another day,” United States v. Graham, 257 F.3d 143, 151 (2d Cir.
2001). Thus, to the extent the public has an interest in assessing the Court’s determination of
SFFA’s claims, that interest does not mandate the disclosure of every document about the
Harvard admissions process that might be the subject of public curiosity. Indeed, the
presumption of public interest does not attach to “an irrelevant document, that neither was nor
should have been relied on.” United States v. Kravetz, 706 F.3d 47, 59 n.9 (1st Cir. 2013). 4
In deciding whether to seal documents, courts consider the degree to which the subject
matter is “traditionally considered private rather than public.” Kravetz, 706 F.3d at 62. The
nature and degree of any injury that would result from public disclosure are important
considerations, as is the sensitivity of the information. Id. Courts also consider how the party
urging disclosure intends to use the information. Id. Where a party seeks to use court files as “a
vehicle for improper purposes,” the Court must deny access “to insure that its records are not
used to gratify private spite or promote public scandal.” In re Boston Herald, 321 F.3d 174, 190
(1st Cir. 2003) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Two private interests are particularly relevant in this case, and weigh with particular force
against public disclosure of the limited proportion of documents that Harvard seeks to keep
sealed. First, “[t]hird-party privacy interests” are “a venerable common law exception to the
presumption of access” that “weigh heavily in a court’s balancing equation.” Kravetz, 706 F.3d
at 62. Second, “business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive standing” may also
be protected from disclosure. Id. at 61; see In re Gitto Glob. Corp., 422 F.3d 1, 6 (1st Cir. 2005)

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If the Court’s ultimate resolution of this case relies on any documents that the Court has
allowed to remain under seal, the Court could consider at that time whether to unseal those
documents. That is yet another consideration weighing in favor of maintaining under seal—at
least at this stage—the documents whose relevance is at best unclear.
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(same); CardiAQ Valve Technologies, Inc. v. Neovasc Inc., No. 1:14-cv-12405-ADB, Dkt. 312 at
2-3, Dkt. 314 (allowing motion for leave to file summary judgment filings under seal followed
by the filing of redacted documents where party argued that information “might be of value to a
competitor or potential customer”).
A.

Personal Information Regarding Third Parties, Including Applicants, Should
Not Be Publicly Disclosed

Every year, more than 40,000 high school students apply to Harvard College, providing
extensive and often deeply sensitive details about their backgrounds, personal lives, and
aspirations. They do so with every expectation of privacy. In recognition of those privacy
interests, the documents that Harvard produced contain limited redactions to avoid the disclosure
of directly identifying information such as applicant names; those redactions are not in dispute
here. But Harvard did not redact extensive additional information about individual applicants
that would permit their identification if it were disclosed. 5 For example, the application files that
Harvard produced and that both parties filed include information—like the applicant’s
extracurricular activities and high schools—that in many cases would allow the applicant to be
easily identified, as well as highly sensitive personal information (such as test scores, GPAs,
essays, and teacher and guidance counselor recommendations). See Declaration of Michael
Connolly in Support of Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment (“Connolly”) Ex. 236;
Declaration of Felicia H. Ellsworth in Support of Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment
(“Ellsworth”) Ex. 61. Similar concerns arise from other documents SFFA filed, including more
than one dozen “summary sheets” (portions of applications that summarize the entire file) and

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In light of that, SFFA agreed in the parties’ Protective Order to make no effort to
“attempt to identify or learn or verify the name … or other contact information of any Harvard
students or applicants,” Dkt. 55 ¶ 2(a), and as a result Harvard generally limited its redactions to
information that would be directly identifying.
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excerpts from a hard copy “docket” (a page summarizing information from three applications).
Connolly Exs. 37, 141 (docket excerpt), 169-183, 188, 220, 228-230 (summary sheets).
The privacy interests of applicants to Harvard College weigh overwhelmingly in favor of
sealing that information, and the public has no countervailing interest in the identity or personal
details of the applicants at issue, since (as SFFA concedes) “[t]his suit is not about the treatment
of individual students.” Dkt. 388 at 2. The sealing of these documents is easily justified. See,
e.g., Boston Herald, 321 F.3d at 191 (“the invasiveness of the disclosure sought here is further
intensified” where information sought to be disclosed pertains to non-parties); Kravetz, 706 F.3d
at 62 (“highly personal” information with “no direct bearing upon the public’s assessment” of a
judicial ruling may “overcome the presumption of public access”).
Indeed, both parties filed redacted affidavits and deposition testimony of SFFA’s socalled “standing members,” and, at SFFA’s request, Harvard redacted the name of each standing
member and any identifying information. Connolly Exs. 194-199, 254-256, 258-261; Ellsworth
Exs. 11, 15, 19, 21, 22, 24 (standing member deposition excerpts), 40 (list of standing members
produced by SFFA), 93 (standing member declarations). Harvard readily agreed to these
redactions; unlike SFFA, Harvard respects the privacy rights of students and applicants, even
those on whose behalf SFFA claims to bring this suit.
Additional documents filed under seal also implicate applicant privacy. For example,
SFFA filed under seal documents containing discussion of individual students that mention
awards won (e.g., Connolly Ex. 104), high schools attended (e.g., Connolly Ex. 137), and
regional ranking in an extracurricular activity (e.g., Connolly Ex. 38). Those facts, in
combination with other information about these applicants that is now available by virtue of
these summary judgment proceedings, could allow anyone to identify the student at issue. In the

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absence of any cognizable public interest in the applicants’ identities, there is equal reason to
seal those documents to protect applicants’ privacy interests.
SFFA also filed several exhibits that contain personal information regarding, and private
correspondence with, Harvard alumni. See, e.g., Connolly Exs. 75, 76, 129, 130. Those alumni
had every reason to believe they were engaging in private communications with representatives
of their alma mater—one that in many instances they had long supported, including through
volunteer service as alumni interviewers. Subjecting their communications to public disclosure
would unduly infringe on their privacy. It would also have a chilling effect that would be
detrimental to Harvard’s admissions process, which relies on the candid assessment of applicants
by alumni interviewers each year. Declaration of Robin Worth (Worth Decl.) ¶ 17. The privacy
rights of third parties “weigh heavily” in favor of sealing. Kravetz, 706 F.3d at 62.
Nor is there any public interest in this correspondence sufficient to outweigh these wellestablished privacy interests. Because SFFA’s summary judgment filing is nothing of the sort—
alleging 900 paragraphs of purportedly material and undisputed facts that SFFA knows are
fiercely contested—it is unlikely that many of the 261 exhibits SFFA has filed in connection
with that motion will serve as the basis of the Court’s ruling. Standard Fin. Mgmt. Corp., 830
F.2d at 408 (public interest attaches primarily to “materials on which a court relies in
determining the litigants’ substantive rights”). SFFA’s choice to clutter the docket with
irrelevant exhibits in an effort to make them public does not create a public interest in those
documents. Kravetz, 706 F.3d at 59 n.9 (irrelevant documents not entitled to presumption of
disclosure). Indeed, Harvard’s position is carefully calibrated to protect only correspondence
from non-parties who had a legitimate expectation of privacy in what they sent; to the extent

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SFFA sought to publicly file Harvard’s responses to correspondence from alumni, Harvard
assented (with appropriate redactions for the identity of the alumni). See Connolly Ex. 132.
SFFA also filed as exhibits additional correspondence with non-parties to this litigation
who also have privacy interests warranting sealing. That correspondence includes a letter from a
high school student to Harvard’s President (Connolly Ex. 131) and messages from employees of
other Harvard schools (such as the Harvard Kennedy School of Government) (Ex. 71). Such
communications are “traditionally considered private,” Kravetz, 706 F.3d at 62, and that
significant privacy interest outweighs whatever minimal public interest attaches to documents
that are marginally relevant at best.
B.

Granular Information About Harvard’s Admissions Processes Should Not
Be Publicly Disclosed

Courts routinely seal “confidential business information,” Bradford & Bigelow, 109 F.
Supp. 3d at 448, and other “business information that might harm a litigant’s competitive
standing,” Nixon, 435 U.S. at 598. This Court has therefore allowed parties to submit summary
judgment documents under seal when necessary to “avoid the serious competitive injury that
dissemination would more than likely entail.” Glass Dimensions, Inc. v. State St. Corp., 2013
WL 6280085, at *1 (D. Mass. Dec. 3, 2013) (allowing motion to seal summary judgment filings
that contained information about client fees and other propriety information); Hilsinger Co. v.
Eyeego, LLC, 2014 WL 5475032, at *1 (D. Mass. Oct. 29, 2014) (granting motion to seal
summary judgment filings because “material to be filed under seal includes sensitive information
regarding the design and engineering of [plaintiff’s] products”).
This approach is supported by courts across the country, which routinely seal confidential
business information when its disclosure would present competitive risk to a party. See, e.g.,
Rich v. Shrader, 2013 WL 6028305, at *3-4 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 13, 2013) (granting motion to seal
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“Booz Allen’s partnership evaluation, internal policies and strategies, [and] financial
information” that could “be subjected to improper use by Booz Allen competitors if publicly
disseminated,” and sealing testimony that could “be used by competitors to piece together
portions of Booz Allen’s proprietary review and employee development system”); Bracco
Diagnostics Inc. v. Amersham Health Inc., 2007 WL 2085350 at *9-10 (D.N.J. July 18, 2007)
(sealing unpublished clinical studies and internal analyses where “the subject studies, analyses
and underlying data would not be publicly available, but for the discovery process in this
litigation, and … are generally maintained as highly confidential” and “the subject materials
could be manipulated or distorted by competitors for a business advantage”).
Those cases support Harvard’s request that the Court seal commercially sensitive
documents the parties filed in connection with their summary judgment materials. Although the
commercial interests at stake in this case reflect Harvard’s status as a nonprofit educational
institution—and thus differ somewhat from the interests at stake in cases concerning for-profit
companies—they are no less legally compelling. In particular, Harvard’s commercial interests
include (1) preventing applicants from attempting to “game the system” by modifying their
conduct or their applications to conform to what they believe Harvard wants from them;
(2) preventing the college counseling industry from using what would otherwise be non-public
information to help well-resourced applicants at the expense of applicants with lesser access to
information and advice; and (3) preventing other universities from using Harvard’s information
to shape their recruiting messages to potential applicants. Those interests warrant protection of
the narrow categories of documents identified below.
Training materials. Over many years, the Admissions Office has developed internal
training materials for admissions officers. They include “reading procedures” (Connolly Ex. 29,

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Ellsworth Exs. 56-57), a “casebook” (Ellsworth Ex. 52), and a “casebook discussion guide”
(Ellsworth Ex. 53). There is no question that these documents are proprietary, and SFFA
supplies no reason to think that they are in the public domain. The disclosure of this confidential
business information would present significant risk of harm to Harvard. The documents provide
detailed guidance, including guidance based on real-world application files, on how to evaluate
and rate applicants and weigh competing considerations in deciding whether to admit an
applicant. Worth Decl. ¶¶ 11-12. These training materials are created by the Harvard
Admissions Office, are unique to Harvard, and are not readily publicly available. Worth Decl.
¶ 13.
Harvard strives to run an admissions process that captures a complete and accurate
picture of each applicant; that is fair and equitable for all applicants, regardless of resources; and
that draws to campus an extraordinary and diverse class each year. Each of those goals would be
compromised by the release of these documents. First, applicants might use the documents to
attempt to mold their applications to fit what they think Harvard wants, rather than providing an
authentic account of their own qualifications and backgrounds. 6 Worth Decl. ¶ 14. Second, and
relatedly, the disclosure of these documents would be used by the $400 million industry of forprofit college counselors for a similar purpose—a result that would detract from the legitimacy
of the applications Harvard receives and would be seen as providing (and likely would provide)
still greater advantage to wealthier applicants who could more readily avail themselves of such
advice. Worth Decl. ¶¶ 7-8, 14. Third, other colleges and universities that similarly seek to

6

Cf. Deirdre Fernandes, Want To Know How To Get Into Harvard? Court May Allow
Some Admissions Documents To Be Open To The Public, Boston Globe (Apr. 10, 2018) (“If
there’s a Holy Grail in higher education, this might be it: thousands of documents that lay bare
the inner workings of Harvard University’s admissions process. … Students and guidance
counselors would love a peek.”).
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admit and matriculate an extraordinary and diverse class of students each year could use these
documents to gain a competitive advantage over Harvard, both by learning from and adapting
Harvard’s methods of recruiting applicants and by using their knowledge of Harvard’s processes
to more effectively compete for sought-after applicants. See Worth Decl. ¶ 25.
Internal data. Many of the documents SFFA seeks to publicly file contain internal data
relating to Harvard’s applicant pool that have never been publicly disclosed and that have no
relevance to the resolution of this case. Harvard has agreed that both parties’ expert empirical
reports may be publicly filed with minimal redactions, based on Harvard’s recognition that there
is a legitimate public interest in the documents that may reasonably be expected to inform this
Court’s rulings. With the core statistical analysis on the public docket, there is little reason to
publicize underlying raw data that SFFA decided for whatever reason to file with its brief.
For example, during the course of the admissions cycle, senior members of the
admissions office periodically receive a document that contains an overview of the tentatively
admitted class, including information about the composition of the class by sex, geography,
intended concentration, legacy status, socioeconomic status, and race. See Worth Decl. ¶ 18;
Dkt. 418 (Harvard Mem. ISO Mot. for Summ. J.) at 19 n.13. SFFA filed no fewer than 20 of
these documents (or similar presentations of data) with its motion. Connolly Exs. 33, 36, 40-48,
58, 59, 68, 70, 79, 80, 97, 100, 223. These documents reveal snapshots of the admitted class at
various moments in time—incomplete snapshots, as they do not reflect the ultimate results of the
full admissions process—and would, if disclosed, provide the public with a manipulable set of
data exported from Harvard’s admissions database.
Harvard is transparent about the ultimate composition of its admitted class each year (see,
e.g., Ellsworth Decl. Exs. 79, 82) and has agreed to the disclosure in this litigation of previously

15

unreleased information about admission rates and the composition of its applicant pool (see, e.g.,
Connolly Decl. Ex. 106). But the documents now at issue, which are available only to the senior
leadership of the office, provide a far more granular picture of the developing class to be
admitted, and could, if disclosed, lead to strategic (or even misleading) applicant behavior and
competitive disadvantages for Harvard. Worth Decl. ¶¶ 19-20. The same is true of other
documents SFFA filed with its brief that contain additional data about the applicant pool broken
out by racial or ethnic group. Connolly Exs. 205, 206. Harvard does not release this level of
granular information about its applicant pool, there is no legitimate public interest to be served
by releasing it in this case, and its disclosure would be harmful in several ways. Worth Decl.
¶¶ 19-22.
The disclosure of these documents could change applicant behavior by motivating
applicants to, for example, falsely represent their intended concentration to align with
concentrations that appear sought after in the early stages of certain admissions cycles. Worth
Decl. ¶¶ 14, 19. Furthermore, given the high level of public interest in Harvard and Harvard’s
interest in ensuring that misinformation does not distort applicant behavior, the disclosure of
these documents would likely force Harvard to expend significant resources to dispel myths
about its admissions process that emerge from erroneous third-party statistical analyses of these
data. The disclosure of this additional non-public data about Harvard’s applicant pool will also
be of significant interest to Harvard’s competitors, who will inevitably attempt to leverage it for
their advantage, to Harvard’s detriment. Worth Decl. ¶¶ 20, 22.
Other information about the admissions process. SFFA also seeks to publicly file
additional documents relating to the detailed inner workings of the admissions process. These
include internal communications among admissions officers, often regarding individual

16

applicants; non-public details of Harvard’s recruiting efforts; and documents (such as lists of
applicants) the admissions office utilizes throughout the process. All of this information is
maintained in confidence by the Admissions Office, Worth Decl. ¶ 24, would “traditionally be
considered private,” and should have “no direct bearing” on this Court’s decision. See Kravetz,
706 F.3d at 62. The disclosure of information that reveals—to an unprecedented degree—the
inner workings of Harvard’s admissions process may harm Harvard not only by motivating
applicants to modify their behavior to take advantage of that information, but also by
disadvantaging Harvard in the extremely competitive market to recruit, admit, and enroll the
most outstanding students across the world. It is not difficult to imagine how Harvard’s
competitors might try to utilize information about Harvard’s yield rates, or the number of
students Harvard seeks to admit from certain geographic territories, to their advantage and to
Harvard’s detriment. Because Harvard’s legitimate confidentiality interest outweighs the limited
public interest in marginally relevant documents, these materials should remain sealed.
C.

The Limited Remaining Redactions To The Parties’ Filings Are Appropriate

In the wake of the parties’ June 15 filings, Harvard has reviewed the redactions that
SFFA applied to its summary judgment brief and Local Rule 56.1 statement and advised SFFA
that a significant portion of the language SFFA initially redacted may be publicly filed.
Nevertheless, portions of the parties’ papers should properly remain redacted either because they
implicate applicant privacy, third party privacy, or reveal the inner workings of the admissions
office and, if disclosed, would harm Harvard in the ways described above. Exhibits B and C to
this memorandum identify, for each of these documents, the basis for each redaction by page
and, where applicable, by paragraph.

17

Harvard has also reviewed the parties’ deposition testimony, which was initially filed
under seal. Harvard has informed SFFA that large portions of the deposition excerpts it filed
may be filed publicly, and Harvard has publicly filed each of the deposition excerpts it
previously sealed, with very limited redactions. To the extent Harvard has either redacted
testimony from its own deposition excerpts or indicated that SFFA should redact portions of the
deposition testimony it filed in connection with its motion, Harvard has done so to protect
applicant privacy, third party privacy, or to protect from disclosure detailed non-public facts
about the admissions process that, if disclosed, could harm Harvard for all the reasons discussed
above.
CONCLUSION
For the foregoing reasons, the documents or excerpts of documents identified in Exhibits
A, B, and C should remain under seal.
Respectfully submitted,
/s/ Felicia H. Ellsworth
Seth P. Waxman (pro hac vice)
Paul R.Q. Wolfson (pro hac vice)
Daniel Winik (pro hac vice)
WILMER CUTLER PICKERING
HALE AND DORR LLP
1875 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, D.C. 20006
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]

18

William F. Lee (BBO #291960)
Felicia H. Ellsworth (BBO #665232)
Andrew S. Dulberg (BBO #675405)
Elizabeth Mooney (BBO #679522)
WILMER CUTLER PICKERING
HALE AND DORR LLP
60 State Street
Boston, MA 02109
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
[e-mail]
Debo P. Adegbile (pro hac vice)
WILMER CUTLER PICKERING
HALE AND DORR LLP
7 World Trade Center
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
[e-mail]
Counsel for Defendant President and
Fellows of Harvard College

Dated: June 22, 2018

19

EXHIBIT A
Documents and Information SFFA and Harvard Jointly Request Remain Under Seal
The parties agree that the following documents filed with the summary judgment
materials should remain under seal:
Document Category

Exhibits

Application files

Ellsworth Ex. 61

Applicant summary sheets

Connolly Exs. 37, 169-183, 188, 220, 228-230, 236

Docket binder excerpt

Connolly Ex. 141

Information about individuals on
whom SFFA relies for standing

Ellsworth Ex. 40

The parties further agree that the following documents filed publicly with redactions
should remain redacted, with unredacted versions remaining under seal:
Document Category

Exhibits

Information about individuals on
whom SFFA relies for standing

Connolly Exs. 194-199, 254-256, 258-261
Ellsworth Exs. 11, 15, 19, 21, 22, 24, 93

EXHIBIT B
Documents and Information Harvard Requests Remain Under Seal1
Harvard requests that the following documents filed with the summary judgment
materials remain under seal:
Document Category

Exhibits

Documents containing information
about individual applicants

Connolly Exs. 38, 71, 75, 76, 104, 137, 152, 224

Documents containing information
about third parties

Connolly Exs. 61, 71, 75, 76, 129-131, 136, 137, 187

Admissions Office training materials

Connolly Exs. 29, 93, 125

Ellsworth Ex. 63

Ellsworth Exs. 52, 53, 56, 57
Documents containing internal
admissions data

Connolly Exs. 33, 36, 40-48, 58, 59, 68, 70, 79, 80, 93,
97, 100, 119, 205, 206, 223

Documents containing other sensitive
information about Harvard,
Admissions Office

Connolly Exs. 32, 39, 55, 66, 69, 74, 84, 93, 96, 99,
113, 119, 126, 127, 139, 146, 147, 151, 152, 158, 163,
189, 192, 202, 227
Ellsworth Exs. 43, 62

1

For a limited number of these documents, SFFA has proposed minimal redactions that do not
adequately address Harvard’s interest in protecting applicant privacy.

Harvard further requests that the following documents already filed publicly with
redactions remain redacted, with unredacted versions remaining under seal:
Document Category

Exhibits

Documents containing information
about individual applicants

Connolly Exs. 73, 124, 252, 253
Ellsworth Exs. 31, 33, 37
Arcidiacono Decl. Ex. A

Documents containing information
about third parties

Connolly Exs. 31, 51, 73, 118, 124, 132, 144, 226

Admissions Office training materials

Connolly Exs. 28, 252, 253
Ellsworth Exs. 31, 33, 37
Arcidiacono Decl. Ex. A

Documents containing internal
admissions data

Connolly Exs. 81, 89, 90, 101, 103, 134, 252
Ellsworth Exs. 31, 33
Arcidiacono Decl. & Ex. A

Documents containing other sensitive
information about Harvard,
Admissions Office

Connolly Exs. 31, 134, 184, 252, 253
Ellsworth Exs. 32, 33, 35, 37, 65, 134
Arcidiacono Decl. & Exs. A, B
Kahlenberg Decl. Ex. A

EXHIBIT C
Materials in Parties’ Memoranda and Statements of
Material Facts That Harvard Requests Remain Redacted
Basis

Location of Preexisting Redaction(s)
Proposed to Remain Redacted

SFFA’s Memorandum of Reasons in Support of Its Motion for Summary Judgment (Dkt. 413)
Information about individual
applicants

Pp. 22 (except the separate redaction on line 10), 26

Information about third parties

Pp. 22 (except the separate redaction on line 10), 26

Internal admissions data

P. 38 (table and lines 8-9 of text)

Sensitive information about the
Admissions Office

Pp. 34, 35 (lines 4-6), 36, 37 (lines 1-18), 38 (lines 3-4)

SFFA’s Statement of Undisputed Material Facts (Dkt. 414)
Names of individual admissions
officers outside of senior
leadership

Passim

Information about individual
applicants

¶¶ 299, 300, 334, 335, 337, 339, 690, 693-698

Information about third parties

¶¶ 20, 299, 300, 325-329, 332-334, 337, 339, 374, 694

Admissions Office training
materials

¶¶ 81, 83, 85, 88, 89, 98, 100, 101, 202-205, 207, 208, 210212

Internal admissions data

¶¶ 231 (table), 232, 233, 240 (table), 241, 242, 395-398

Sensitive information about the
Admissions Office

P. iii, line 3 (all but first two words); ¶¶ 96, 102, 111
(numbers other than year), 114 (number other than date),
130-135, 147, 168-171 (and preceding heading), 189, 190
(including table), 191-193, 230 (including all but first two
words of preceding heading), 234, 235, 237, 243 (final five
words of entry after Jan. 3, 2014), 246-249, 251-260, 296298, 483, 487-491

Basis

Location of Preexisting Redaction(s)
Proposed to Remain Redacted

Harvard’s Memorandum in Support of Motion for Summary Judgment on All Remaining
Counts (Dkt. 418)
Information about individuals on
whom SFFA relies for standing2

Pp. 14 & n.9, 15 & n.10

Harvard’s Local Rule 56.1 Statement of Undisputed Material Facts in Support of Motion for
Summary Judgment on All Remaining Counts (Dkt. 420)
Information about individuals on
whom SFFA relies for standing3
Admissions Office training
materials

2
3

¶¶ 249, 250, 258, 260, 262-278
¶¶ 50, 54, 63

SFFA assents to these redactions.
SFFA assents to these redactions.

EXHIBIT D
Documents Filed Under Seal for Which Harvard Has Assented
to Public Filing With No Redactions or Limited Redactions
Harvard has informed SFFA that it assents to the public filing, without redaction, of the
following exhibits previously filed under seal:
Filing Party

Exhibit

SFFA

Connolly Exs. 5, 11-13, 19, 22-26, 35, 67, 82, 83, 85, 91,
92, 111, 120, 121, 138, 231, 233, 234

Harvard

Ellsworth Exs. 3-8, 10, 12-14, 16-18, 20, 23, 25, 26, 27,
29, 30, 54, 55

Harvard has further informed SFFA that it assents to the public filing, subject to limited
redactions that Harvard has provided SFFA or will provide the Court, of the following exhibits
previously filed under seal:
Filing Party

Exhibit

SFFA

Connolly Exs. 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 16-18, 20, 78, 110,
140, 225

Harvard

Ellsworth Exs. 1, 9

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that this document and attachments will be sent electronically to counsel
of record for SFFA.
/s/ Felicia H. Ellsworth
Felicia H. Ellsworth