Endowment Tax Eyed After Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling

Universities are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill a tax on their multibillion-dollar endowments, an effort expected to heat up as legacy admissions are thrown back into the congressional spotlight.

The 1.4% tax on university endowments will be an area to watch after the Supreme Court effectively ended race-based affirmative action and as lawmakers seek to target rich universities that have exclusive admissions. Republicans imposed the tax on endowments in their 2017 tax overhaul as a way to raise revenue for the tax cuts.

The levy applies to more than two dozen schools with more than 500 students ...