Yi Fang Chen v. Zohran Mamdani

New York City schools are some of the most segregated in the country. In June 2026, a diverse group of public school students and local community-based organizations intervened in a lawsuit to defend a city program that sought to remove unfair barriers for deserving but underrepresented students to attend New York City’s eight elite public high schools. Students from across the city— from all races, all economic backgrounds, and all boroughs—deserve a fair opportunity to access the full opportunities their public schools offer.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), and LatinoJustice PRLDEF intervened in the federal lawsuit Yi Fang Chen v. Zohran Mamdani on behalf of Teens Take Charge – a public-school student led organization, Desis Rising Up & Moving (DRUM), the Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF), and a group of racially and ethnically diverse public school students and their families.

The Chen lawsuit challenges the expansion of a program designed to remove barriers to access to the Specialized High Schools, a group of selective public schools often considered to be the most desirable in the City. The Discovery Program enables high-achieving students from low-income communities who attend middle schools with high economic need to earn admission to the Specialized High Schools by competing directly against peers in similar circumstances and completing a summer preparation session.

The civil rights organizations intervened on behalf of students, parents and community groups to help defend the expansion of the Discovery Program as a modest, but important, step towards remedying longstanding unfair barriers in the City’s public schools. Since then, the plaintiff, Chen, sought a preliminary injunction which was denied by the trial court. An appeal of that denial is pending before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.