HISTORICAL SOCIETY EVENTS
'A Supreme Evening 2023' Featured Behind-the-Scenes Details About the College Admissions Scandal
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TOP Florida Supreme Court Historical Society President Scott Rost welcomes guests to A Supreme Evening 2023. ABOVE The evening's program also included a "State of the Court" presentation by Chief Justice Carlos G. Muñiz.
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HISTORICAL REVIEW
WINTER 2023
he lives of Wall Street Journal reporters Melissa Korn and Jennifer Levitz took a dramatic turn on March 12, 2019, when they began covering the investigation that exposed malfeasance in the most extensive college admissions scandal ever prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice, “Operation Varsity Blues.” Korn and Levitz discussed the behind-the-scenes details of the investigation and legal battle that spanned the country as the keynote presenters at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s Annual Dinner January 26 in Tallahassee. Since the scandal broke, Korn and Levitz have reported extensively on it and have co-written the definitive book on the matter, “UNACCEPTABLE: Privilege, Deceit & the Making of the College Admissions Scandal.” “What was fascinating about this case was it was just so brazen,” said Levitz, a national reporter for The Wall Street Journal based in Boston. “The cheating was so stark. And people just wanted to know how this went on, how the colleges could not have known about it, and why. Why would somebody go to this length?” William “Rick” Singer, the man who devised the high-profile college admissions racket involving families and schools across the nation, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in January to 42 months in prison and ordered to pay nearly $20 million in restitution and forfeitures of ill-gotten gains. Between 2011 and 2018, Korn and Levitz said, parents paid upwards of $25 million to Singer’s charity to bribe coaches and a college administrator to designate the children of wealthy clients as recruited athletes to gain admission to prestigious colleges across the country. The Wall Street Journal stuck with the story for so long because it involved people the publication cares about, including CEOs, lawyers, real-estate developers, people in finance, and celebrities, Levitz said. “It just resonated with people,” she said. “Everyone had an opinion about it.” As the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering two cases involving traditional affirmative action in higher education admissions, Korn, who works out of Wall Street Journal’s New York office covering higher education, said their stories highlighted a different type of affirmative action that goes to those “who already have every privilege — the legacy, the athletes, the wealthy — and I don’t want to sound like a downer, but that is not going anywhere.” Korn emphasized, however, the vast majority of the students involved had no idea the length their parents went to get them
