A federal judge on Monday ruled that the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill does not discriminate against white and Asian American applicants in its student admissions process after a lawsuit was filed claiming its policies favor black, Hispanic, and Native Americans over white and Asian American candidates. The plaintiff, a group called Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), initiated the lawsuit against the university in November 2014, alleging that its undergraduate admissions process violates multiple rights, including equal protection under the law. Specifically, SFFA alleges that the university had “intentionally discriminated against certain of its members on the basis of their race, color, or ethnicity,” and had been utilizing an undergraduate admissions policy that “does not merely use race as a ‘plus’ factor in admissions decisions in order to achieve student body diversity,” rather it “uses race as a factor in admissions.” But UNC argued that their admissions process was “constitutionally permissible” in …