A conservative journal published an attack yesterday on the graduate admissions policies of Harvard's Government Department, charging that the department's affirmative action practices are "probably illegal."

The cover story in the Weekly Standard, a new Washington-based weekly, accuses Harvard of "race norming" and of holding minorities to unreasonably low standards.

Across the board, University officials denied that minorities receive such special treatment.

"There is no lower threshold for minority students," said Margot N. Gill, administrative dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). "There are no target numbers and no quotas in the Government Department."

To support its arguments, the Weekly Standard article summarizes a 1993 piece in PS: Political Science and Politics written by Harvard Professor of Government Gary King.

King had served two years as chair of the department's graduate admissions committee at the time the article appeared.

King wrote that the committee first pares down the original 600 to 700 applications to a "primary list" of about 45, according to the Weekly Standard.

Then, according to the article, the committee double-checks the applications of some previously discarded minorities "to ensure that we do not miss anyone who meets these same criteria," King wrote.

Those minorities who are then deemed able to "make it through the program" are admitted, King wrote.

The Weekly Standard quotes King as writing that 200 to 300 applicants would be admitted to the program every year if affirmative action crite- ria were applied to all candidates.

According to Harvard officials, about 35 students are admitted to the program each year.

In response to an e-mail message seeking comment for this story, King referred all questions to the Harvard News Office.

The Weekly Standard article also attacks GSAS's practice of providing full financial aid to all "underrepresented" minorities, regardless of need.

The journal says the practices described by King are "dubious" under several Supreme Court rulings, including the landmark 1978 Bakke decision and the 1995 ruling in Adarand Constructors v. Pena.

The University's top attorney disputed the legal reasoning in the journal's critique.

"I don't agree with the description of the law contained in the Weekly Standard article," Vice President and General Counsel Margaret H. Marshall said yesterday.