A federal judge has allowed a civil rights case challenging alleged anti-Asian bias in college admissions to advance toward discovery, clearing a significant procedural barrier that could unlock internal university records and enrollment data.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart denied the University of Washington's motion to dismiss Title VI claims filed by Nan Zhong on behalf of his son, Stanley Zhong. While the judge dismissed several other counts and removed two of the three plaintiffs from the case, the decision to let the core discrimination allegations proceed represents a win for the family.
The Zhongs filed federal lawsuits against multiple institutions, including the University of California system, the University of Washington, the University of Michigan and Cornell University, alleging systematic discrimination against highly qualified Asian-American applicants.
"With that ruling, we can now proceed into discovery, request internal documents, internal communication and, most importantly, admissions data," Nan Zhong said following the decision. The discovery phase is where both sides exchange evidence.
The University of Washington Board of Regents said in a statement that many claims were dismissed and that the university prioritizes Washington residents for admission. "Admission to the Allen School is highly competitive, and the vast majority of out-of-state applicants are not admitted," the statement said.
Stanley Zhong, a 2023 graduate of Henry M. Gunn High School in Palo Alto, scored 1590 out of 1600 on the SAT, placing him in the 99th percentile. He maintained a weighted GPA of 4.42 and ranked in the top 9% of his graduating class. He had launched a free e-signing startup that caught the attention of Amazon Web Services.
Despite this résumé, Stanley was rejected by 16 of the 18 colleges to which he applied, including top-tier institutions. He was accepted only to the University of Maryland and the University of Texas-Austin.
Shortly after those rejections, Google hired Stanley as a full-time software engineer—a position that typically requires a Ph.D. or equivalent experience. Google had first identified him in coding competitions when he was 13 years old. He joined Google in fall 2023 rather than attending college.
Judge Robart's decision means the court believes there is enough evidence to move forward, though it does not indicate the plaintiffs have won on the merits.
Nan Zhong and his team spent over a year analyzing admissions trends before filing their suits, concluding that anti-Asian bias persists despite recent Supreme Court decisions on race-conscious admissions. Since taking their case public, Zhong says dozens of families nationwide have contacted him with similar stories.
Discovery will require universities to produce admissions data, internal communications and decision-making records—documents that institutions have historically guarded closely. The University of California system has previously denied allegations of race-based discrimination in admissions, asserting that its policies comply strictly with state and federal law prohibiting race-conscious decisions.
The Zhongs cleared the initial defense hurdle—the motion to dismiss, where defendants argue that even accepting all factual allegations as true, no legal claim exists. Now the case proceeds to the evidence phase, where assumptions give way to documents, emails and data.
