My colleague Rick Sander — who is also an occasional guest-blogger on this blog — has for years been trying to get California Bar records that could help him test his “mismatch hypothesis”: the hypothesis that race-based preferences that let black and Latino students get into higher-ranked law schools actually end up hurting the very […]
Archive | Affirmative Action
The National Jurist Ranks Law Schools on “Diversity”
In the National Jurist, Rebecca Larsen has an article ranking law schools on the basis of “diversity.” At Balkinization, lawprof Jason Mazzone makes some cogent criticisms of her approach. Larsen ranks schools on the basis of the percentage of students and faculty who are African-American, Hispanic, or Asian, with a bonus if that percentage is […]
Preferences for White Males and the Diversity Rationale for Affirmative Action
A recent effort to establish a scholarship for white males at Texas State University has predictably stirred controversy: According to the Austin American-Statesman, a “whites only” scholarship is being offered at Texas State University. The Former Majority Association for Equality — a nonprofit group — is offering five $1,000 scholarships exclusively to white male students…. […]
Are Judges “Employees” Covered by State Antidiscrimination Law?
Howard v. Kansas City (Mo. Jan. 25) says “yes,” as to state antidiscrimination law, and notes the difference of opinion among different states’ courts on the subject. Judges are not covered by federal antidiscrimination law, and it’s not clear whether the Equal Protection Clause bars discrimination in the appointment of high-level officials (a category that […]
Asian-Americans and Affirmative Action
As co-blogger David Bernstein notes, Fisher v. Texas highlights the ways in which today’s affirmative action programs victimize Asian-American students for the benefit of groups that often have not endured the kind of massive systematic discrimination inflicted on blacks, and indeed may have suffered less historic discrimination than the Asian-Americans themselves. I previously wrote about […]
Fisher v. Texas
By David Bernstein on January 20, 2011 9:26 pm in Affirmative Action, Constitutional Law, Racial Discrimination
As Ilya notes below, the Fifth Circuit has upheld the University of Texas’s racial and ethnic preference practices in Fisher v. Texas. There are a number of interesting aspects of Fisher. One is that the University of Texas-Austin had a very “diverse” class without using preferences. Under the university’s previous, race-neutral system, which included the […]
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Upholds University of Texas Affirmative Action Admissions Program
By Ilya Somin on January 20, 2011 2:49 am in Academia, Affirmative Action, Constitutional Law, Racial Discrimination
In yesterday’s opinion in Fisher v. Texas, the US Court of Appeals upheld a University of Texas affirmative action program in admissions, applying the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which held that racial diversity in higher education is a “compelling state interest” justifying the use of racial preferences to ensure that there […]
Judge Requires Racial, Gender “Diversity” in Class Counsel
New York Law Journal: A stir recently erupted in the securities class action bar after Baer issued an order in a case against Gildan Activewear Inc., directing two of the largest firms in the field, Labaton Sucharow and Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, to “make every effort” to put at least one woman and one […]
California Supreme Court Upholds Constitutionality of the California Anti-Race/Sex-Preference Initiative (Prop. 209)
The decision (6-1) is at Coral Construction, Inc. v. City and County of San Francisco; the court agrees with Coalition for Economic Equity v. Wilson, 122 F.3d 692 (9th Cir. 1997), and Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Granholm, 473 F.3d 237 (6th Cir. 2006), which likewise upheld the California initiative and a similar Michigan […]
James Webb on Affirmative Action and Race
In his much-discussed recent Wall Street Journal op ed, Virginia Senator James Webb makes some good points about affirmative action and race, but also some key mistakes and omissions. On the plus side, Webb’s article highlights the contradictions between the “diversity” and compensatory justice rationales for affirmative action. He also correctly suggests that slavery and […]
Affirmative Action and Racial Profiling Revisited
By Ilya Somin on May 8, 2010 12:39 am in Affirmative Action, Conservatism, Immigration, Racial Profiling
Back in 2006, I pointed out that most liberals and conservatives take internally contradictory stances on affirmative action and racial profiling: I have long been fascinated by the fact that most conservatives support racial and ethnic profiling for national security and law enforcement purposes, yet are categorically opposed to the use of racial or ethnic […]
Hypocrisy, Same-Sex Marriage, and Televising Public Interest Litigation
Over at Slate, Dahlia Lithwick suggests that gay marriage opponents who oppose broadcasting the San Francisco gay marriage trial are hypocrites. According to Lithwick, it’s inconsistent both to want the people to decide an issue and to deny them video access to a trial that might sway their opinion: Opponents of gay marriage can’t have […]
Overall Hispanic Matriculation to American Law Schools is Increasing
Somewhat surprisingly the Society of American Law Teachers study on minority matriculation to law school didn’t give data for all Hispanics. Instead, it focused on Mexican-Americans alone, concluding that their “representation” has “trended downward since 1993.” Most law schools target Hispanics as a group for affirmative action admissions, not Mexican-Americans alone. It could be that […]