Affirmative Action 209

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see doj2 918

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clarence clerks neomi raoconsovoy

=<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/22/justice-clarence-thomas-wife-ginni-behind-group-that-reportedly-pushed-january-6-fake-electors-scheme">https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/22/justice-clarence-thomas-wife-ginni-behind-group-that-reportedly-pushed-january-6-fake-elec</a>tors-schemehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/24/affirmative-action-could-soon-be-overturned-as-supreme-court-takes-up-harvard-and-unc-cases<div align="left" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-body fs-article fs-responsive-text current-article article-topline" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 30px; max-width: 42em;"><div style="font-size: small; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252);">...Ginni, serves on the board of C.N.P. Action, the political advocacy arm of the right-wing Council for National Policy, which the Times reports circulated an “action steps” document after the 2020 presidential election that advocated for challenging the election results in Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.</div><div class="key-facts" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><div class="key-facts-element animate-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding-bottom: 1.2rem; position: relative;"><div class="halfway_hardwall_2" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="key-facts-element animate-line" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding-bottom: 1.2rem; position: relative;">C.N.P. Action told its members to “pressure” GOP state lawmakers to appoint alternate slates of electors in states that President Joe Biden won, in an effort to get Congress to recognize those electors over the Democratic ones, claiming there was “historical, legal precedent” for doing so.the Times notes the effort “would have almost certainly” gone before the Supreme Court if the GOP lawmakers had succeeded.</div><div class="key-facts-element animate-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding-bottom: 1.2rem; position: relative;"><div class="halfway_hardwall_4" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures; box-sizing: border-box;"><div class="key-facts-element animate-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding-bottom: 1.2rem; position: relative;">C.N.P. Action broadly pushed for members to challenge battleground state results, the Times reports, noting one such effort—a Pennsylvania GOP lawmaker’s effort to overturn that state’s results—ultimately went before the Supreme Court, where it was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/08/supreme-court-shuts-down-pennsylvania-gop-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=ceaa6566eff3" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/08/supreme-court-shuts-down-pennsylvania-gop-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=ceaa6566eff3" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/08/supreme-court-shuts-down-pennsylvania-gop-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=ceaa6566eff3" aria-label="rejected" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">rejected</a>.</div><div class="key-facts-element animate-line" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding-bottom: 1.2rem; position: relative;">When the Supreme Court then separately <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/02/22/supreme-court-kills-pennsylvania-mail-in-voting-case-and-post-election-lawsuits/?sh=30ea8fa74f41" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/02/22/supreme-court-kills-pennsylvania-mail-in-voting-case-and-post-election-lawsuits/?sh=30ea8fa74f41" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/02/22/supreme-court-kills-pennsylvania-mail-in-voting-case-and-post-election-lawsuits/?sh=30ea8fa74f41" aria-label="rejected" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">rejected</a> a full hearing on that Pennsylvania lawsuit after the election, Thomas issued a dissent that the Times notes “echo[ed]” C.N.P. Action’s arguments, saying the court not taking up the case “invite[s] further confusion and erosion of voter confidence.”</div><div class="key-facts-element" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; position: relative;">The Times piece also added to <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/11/facebook-posts/theres-no-evidence-ginni-thomas-organized-jan-6-ev/" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/11/facebook-posts/theres-no-evidence-ginni-thomas-organized-jan-6-ev/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/11/facebook-posts/theres-no-evidence-ginni-thomas-organized-jan-6-ev/" aria-label="previous" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">previous</a> <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" aria-label="reporting" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">reporting</a> on Ginni Thomas’ involvement with the January 6 rally that preceded the attack on the Capitol building, reporting she played a “peacemaking role” between different groups involved with the rally.KEY BACKGROUND</div></div>The Times report comes as Thomas and his wife have come under increasing scrutiny in recent weeks, following a recent New Yorker <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" aria-label="piece" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">piece</a> on Ginni’s political activities and her signing a December <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" aria-label="letter" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">letter</a> that slammed the House’s January 6 committee as an “overtly partisan political persecution.” Watchdog group American Oversight also published <a href="https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1489630310555869190" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1489630310555869190" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://twitter.com/weareoversight/status/1489630310555869190" aria-label="emails" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">emails</a> in early February showing Ginni had emailed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ office and told them her husband “has been in contact with [DeSantis] too on various things of late.” Ginni’s political involvement has long been known and a 2019 <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-ginni-thomas-meeting.html" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-ginni-thomas-meeting.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/26/us/politics/trump-ginni-thomas-meeting.html" aria-label="meeting" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">meeting</a> between her and then-President Donald Trump drew scrutiny. Critics have become more focused on her potential influence on her husband more recently, however, as the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court has taken up an increasing number of major cases on partisan topics like abortion, guns and immigration. Even aside from the Thomases, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/02/02/supreme-court-increasingly-seen-as-conservative-and-too-powerful-poll-finds/?sh=73240b581ad6" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/02/02/supreme-court-increasingly-seen-as-conservative-and-too-powerful-poll-finds/?sh=73240b581ad6" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/zacharysmith/2022/02/02/supreme-court-increasingly-seen-as-conservative-and-too-powerful-poll-finds/?sh=73240b581ad6" aria-label="public trust" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">public trust</a> in the Supreme Court has hit <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/354908/approval-supreme-court-down-new-low.aspx" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://news.gallup.com/poll/354908/approval-supreme-court-down-new-low.aspx" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://news.gallup.com/poll/354908/approval-supreme-court-down-new-low.aspx" aria-label="record lows" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">record lows</a> because of the public’s perception the court is politicized, and Trump-appointed Justice Neil Gorsuch was recently criticized for <a href="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-us-supreme-court-travel-health-ron-desantis-615d109c686464cbbd22b602ce58b27f" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-us-supreme-court-travel-health-ron-desantis-615d109c686464cbbd22b602ce58b27f" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-us-supreme-court-travel-health-ron-desantis-615d109c686464cbbd22b602ce58b27f" aria-label="speaking" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">speaking</a> at the partisan Federalist Society alongside major GOP figures like DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence. His speech was closed to the press.<h2 class="subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); box-sizing: border-box; margin-block: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 1.2rem 0px 8px; text-transform: uppercase;">CHIEF CRITIC</h2>Justice Thomas has hit back against suggestions the court is politicized, saying in a September speech he believes it’s a misconception. “If [the media thinks] you’re anti-abortion or something personally, they think that that’s the way you always will come out,” Thomas said. “They think you become like a politician. And I think that’s a problem.”<h2 class="subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); box-sizing: border-box; margin-block: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 1.2rem 0px 8px; text-transform: uppercase;">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>Whether Justice Thomas will recuse himself from any upcoming cases that could be a conflict of interest. The court will soon hear a challenge to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/24/affirmative-action-could-soon-be-overturned-as-supreme-court-takes-up-harvard-and-unc-cases/" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/24/affirmative-action-could-soon-be-overturned-as-supreme-court-takes-up-harvard-and-unc-cases/" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/24/affirmative-action-could-soon-be-overturned-as-supreme-court-takes-up-harvard-and-unc-cases/" aria-label="affirmative action" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">affirmative action</a> policies backed by a group on whose board Ginni also sits, which has sparked <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jan/28/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-affirmative-action-case-ginni-thomas" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jan/28/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-affirmative-action-case-ginni-thomas" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.theguardian.com/law/2022/jan/28/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-affirmative-action-case-ginni-thomas" aria-label="calls" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">calls</a> for him to recuse, and the New Yorker reports she has ties to the leader of a group that’s brought two other upcoming cases to the court. The Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/01/31/ginni-thomas-clarence-thomas-conflict-jan6-committee/" aria-label="notes" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">notes</a> that while justices are supposed to recuse themselves in cases that could pose a conflict, there’s no actual enforcement mechanism requiring them to do so. Legal scholars have <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/04/legal-scholars-push-for-supreme-court-ethics-code-as-gorsuch-and-thomas-come-under-fire/?sh=5cc2296a46dd" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/04/legal-scholars-push-for-supreme-court-ethics-code-as-gorsuch-and-thomas-come-under-fire/?sh=5cc2296a46dd" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/04/legal-scholars-push-for-supreme-court-ethics-code-as-gorsuch-and-thomas-come-under-fire/?sh=5cc2296a46dd" aria-label="advocated" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">advocated</a> for the high court to take up a code of conduct that would impose a process for preventing conflicts of interest, but the court has not yet said whether they intend to do so.<h2 class="subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); box-sizing: border-box; margin-block: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 1.2rem 0px 8px; text-transform: uppercase;">TANGENT</h2>Though the “fake electors” plot was <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/14/trump-campaign-assembling-alternate-electors-in-key-states-in-far-fetched-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=a017e873213a" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/14/trump-campaign-assembling-alternate-electors-in-key-states-in-far-fetched-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=a017e873213a" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2020/12/14/trump-campaign-assembling-alternate-electors-in-key-states-in-far-fetched-attempt-to-overturn-election/?sh=a017e873213a" aria-label="known" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">known</a> at the time it happened, the strategy—which resulted in seven false slates of GOP electors in states Biden won—has resurfaced in recent months, after the House January 6 committee <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/12/08/meadows-pushed-for-alternate-slate-of-electors-following-trumps-loss-documents-show/?sh=7be167836795" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/12/08/meadows-pushed-for-alternate-slate-of-electors-following-trumps-loss-documents-show/?sh=7be167836795" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/12/08/meadows-pushed-for-alternate-slate-of-electors-following-trumps-loss-documents-show/?sh=7be167836795" aria-label="released documents" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">released documents</a> in December showing former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was involved in discussions about the plot. The committee has issued <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/28/fake-gop-electors-subpoenaed-by-january-6-committee/?sh=138cb6b5a966" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/28/fake-gop-electors-subpoenaed-by-january-6-committee/?sh=138cb6b5a966" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/28/fake-gop-electors-subpoenaed-by-january-6-committee/?sh=138cb6b5a966" aria-label="subpoenas" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">subpoenas</a> to many of the false electors in an attempt to learn more about the origins of the plot and the Trump campaign’s involvement. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/politics/fake-trump-electoral-certificates-justice-department/index.html" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/politics/fake-trump-electoral-certificates-justice-department/index.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.cnn.com/2022/01/25/politics/fake-trump-electoral-certificates-justice-department/index.html" aria-label="CNN" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">CNN</a> the Justice Department is also investigating the scheme, after multiple states’ attorneys general <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-michigan-elections-electoral-college-criminal-investigations-8a0454f0a28fd3f5903fa3ab962f764b" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-michigan-elections-electoral-college-criminal-investigations-8a0454f0a28fd3f5903fa3ab962f764b" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-michigan-elections-electoral-college-criminal-investigations-8a0454f0a28fd3f5903fa3ab962f764b" aria-label="referred" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">referred</a> the certificates to the DOJ and asked them to look into it.<div class="topline_newsletter_container" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem;"><h2 class="subhead-embed color-accent bg-base font-accent font-size text-align" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); box-sizing: border-box; margin-block: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 16px; margin: 1.2rem 0px 8px; text-transform: uppercase;">FURTHER READING</h2><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/22/magazine/clarence-thomas-ginni-thomas.html" aria-label="The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">The Long Crusade of Clarence and Ginni Thomas</a> (New York Times)<a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" target="blank" class="color-link" title="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" data-ga-track="ExternalLink:https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/01/31/is-ginni-thomas-a-threat-to-the-supreme-court" aria-label="Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court?" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">Is Ginni Thomas a Threat to the Supreme Court?</a> (New Yorker)<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/04/legal-scholars-push-for-supreme-court-ethics-code-as-gorsuch-and-thomas-come-under-fire/?sh=5cc2296a46dd" target="self" class="color-link" title="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/04/legal-scholars-push-for-supreme-court-ethics-code-as-gorsuch-and-thomas-come-under-fire/?sh=5cc2296a46dd" data-ga-track="InternalLink:https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/02/04/legal-scholars-push-for-supreme-court-ethics-code-as-gorsuch-and-thomas-come-under-fire/?sh=5cc2296a46dd" aria-label="Legal Scholars Push For Supreme Court Ethics Code As Gorsuch And Thomas Come Under Fire" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer; background-color: transparent;">Legal Scholars Push For Supreme Court Ethics Code As Gorsuch And Thomas Come Under Fire</a> (Forbes)----ref  https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2022/01/24/affirmative-action-could-soon-be-overturned-as-supreme-court-takes-up-harvard-and-unc-casesno lnxAffirmative Action Could Soon Be Overturned As Supreme Court Takes Up Harvard And UNC CasesAlison Durkee Forbes StaffUpdated Jan 25, 2022,TOPLINE The U.S. Supreme Court will hear cases challenging Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC)’s affirmative action policies that take race into account for admissions, the court announced Monday, which could potentially overturn the decades-old practice of affirmative action and threaten gains in diversity at colleges and universities nationwide.KEY FACTSThe court announced it would take up the cases without comment, and it’s not clear yet whether the cases will be heard this term or after the Supreme Court’s next term begins in October.The group Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) sued Harvard University for allegedly discriminating against Asian-American applicants in its admissions process and unfairly favoring other applicants of color, accusing it of using a “racial hierarchy” in its admissions process.The same group also sued UNC in order to cover both public and private universities—noting UNC is the oldest public college in the U.S.—and alleged the university’s policy violates the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause by not guaranteeing racial neutrality.Harvard and UNC have denied the accusations their affirmative action policies are discriminatory and argue they’re in line with previous court rulings upholding the practice, and UNC said it “considers race flexibly as merely one factor among numerous factors” in its admissions process.Harvard said getting rid of race considerations in its admissions would result in “steep declines in diversity,” noting taking race out of the equation entirely would reduce enrollment of Black students at the school from 14% to 6% of its student body, and Hispanic enrollment from 14% to 9%.Both the district and appeals court ruled in Harvard’s favor and upheld their admissions policy, and a district court ruled in UNC’s favor, but SFFA appealed the case to the Supreme Court before an appeals court could rule so that it could be heard with the Harvard case.WHAT TO WATCH FORThe Supreme Court has repeatedly held up affirmative action in the past, but there are fears it will now be overturned given the court’s 6-3 conservative majority. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito have already ruled against affirmative action in the past, as has Chief Justice John Roberts, who once wrote, “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”CRUCIAL QUOTE“Harvard’s mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is appalling,” SFFA alleged in its Supreme Court complaint, calling the case “the kind of important individual rights dispute that this Court has not hesitated to hear.” “Review thus would be warranted if the defendant were any university subject to Title VI. But it isn’t just any university. It’s Harvard.” CHIEF CRITICThe Supreme Court’s past rulings on affirmative action “sent a powerful signal that diversity is vital to preparing individuals to work and participate as citizens in our pluralistic democracy,” Harvard wrote in its opposition to SFFA’s complaint. “Americans have come to view diversity as integral to learning and to trust that the path to leadership is open to all. Overruling those cases at this time would undermine the public’s faith in those foundational principles.”KEY BACKGROUNDThe concept of “affirmative action” to ensure racial diversity dates back to a 1965 executive order that told employers to “take affirmative action to ensure that equal opportunity is provided in all aspects of their employment.” The Supreme Court then officially sanctioned affirmative action in college admissions in a 1978 ruling that found universities could constitutionally consider race as part of its admissions process, though it struck down schools using quota systems dedicating a certain number of enrollment places to students of a particular race. Since then, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held up affirmative action policies in 2003 and 2016, though it struck down a “point system” at the University of Michigan that automatically gave applications from underrepresented racial minorities enough points to virtually guarantee admission. While critics of affirmative action policies contend they discriminate against white and Asian American students, proponents say the practice is necessary for ensuring diversity both at universities and the workforce at large. Harvard also alleged that not considering race in admissions would have “adverse effects on Harvard’s ability to create an environment that promotes cross-racial interactions and that lessens feelings of alienation and isolation.”TANGENTThe Trump Administration had strongly backed the case against Harvard, filing a brief in support of SFFA in 2018 when the case was at a lower court and filing separate affirmative action complaints against Yale University that the Biden Administration later dropped. William Cosovoy, the lead attorney for SFFA, has represented former President Donald Trump in private lawsuits concerning the release of his tax returns. The Biden administration, however, told the Supreme Court in December it should not take up the Harvard case, arguing the lower court rulings that upheld the school’s policy were decided correctly and the case is an “unsuitable vehicle” for the court to overturn its previous affirmative action rulings.FURTHER READINGThe Supreme Court case that could end affirmative action, explained (Vox)A Timeline of Key Supreme Court Cases on Affirmative Action (New York Times)Justices Consider Harvard Case On Race In College Admissions (Associated Press)University of North Carolina and civil rights advocates ask Supreme Court to sidestep affirmative action challenge (CNN)Alison Durkee</div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div align="left" style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/a-colorblind-constitution-what-abigail-fishers-affirmative-action-case-is-r">https://www.propublica.org/article/a-colorblind-constitution-what-abigail-fishers-affirmative-action-case-is-r</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><div class="article-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">when the NAACP began challenging Jim Crow laws across the South, it knew that, in the battle for public opinion, the particular plaintiffs mattered as much as the facts of the case. The group meticulously selected the people who would elicit both sympathy and outrage, who were pristine in form and character. And they had to be ready to step forward at the exact moment when both public sentiment and the legal system might be swayed.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/brownvboard/brownaccount.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">That's how Oliver Brown, a hard-working welder and assistant pastor in Topeka, Kan.</a>, became the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit that would obliterate the separate but equal doctrine. His daughter, whose third-grade innocence posed a searing rebuff to legal segregation, became its face.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Nearly 60 years after that Supreme Court victory, which changed the nation, conservatives freely admit they have stolen that page from the NAACP's legal playbook as they attempt to roll back many of the civil rights group's landmark triumphs.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">In 23-year-old Abigail Noel Fisher they've put forward their version of the perfect plaintiff to challenge the use of race in college admissions decisions.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Publicly, Fisher and her supporters, chief among them the conservative activist who conceived of the case, have worked to make Fisher the symbol of racial victimization in modern America. As their narratives goes, she did everything right. She worked hard, received good grades, and rounded out her high school years with an array of extracurricular activities. But she was cheated, they say, her dream snatched away by a university that closed its doors to her because she had been born the wrong color: White.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">The daughter of suburban <a href="http://www.sugarlandtx.gov/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Sugar Land, Texas</a>, played the cello. Since the second grade, she said, she dreamed of carrying on the family tradition by joining her sister and father among the ranks of <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">University of Texas at Austin</a> alumni.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">And the moment for her to lend her name to the lawsuit might never be riper: The Supreme Court has seated its <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/us/25roberts.html?pagewanted=all&r=1&" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">most conservative bench since the 1930s</a>. The Court is expected to issue a decision any week now in what is considered one of the most important civil rights cases in years.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">On a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXSpx9PZZj4" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">YouTube video</a> posted by <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-usa-court-casemaker-idUSBRE8B30V220121204" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Edward Blum</a>, a 1973 University of Texas graduate whose nonprofit organization is bankrolling the lawsuit, she is soft-spoken, her strawberry blond hair tucked behind one ear. Not even a swipe of lip gloss adorns her girlish face.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"There were people in my class with lower grades who weren't in all the activities I was in, who were being accepted into UT, and the only other difference between us was the color of our skin," she says. "I was taught from the time I was a little girl that any kind of discrimination was wrong. And for an institution of higher learning to act this way makes no sense to me. What kind of example does it set for others?"<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">It's a deeply emotional argument delivered by an earnest young woman, one that's been quoted over and over again.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Except there's a problem. The claim that race cost Fisher her spot at the University of Texas isn't really true.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">In the hundreds of pages of legal filings, Fisher's lawyers spend almost no time arguing that Fisher would have gotten into the university but for her race.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">If you're confused, it is no doubt in part because of how Blum, Fisher and others have shaped the dialogue as the case worked its way to the country's top court.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Journalists and bloggers have written dozens of articles on the case, including profiles of Fisher and Blum. News networks have aired panel after panel about the future of affirmative action. Yet for all the front-page attention, angry debate and exchanges before the justices, some of the more fundamental elements of the case have been little reported.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Race probably had nothing to do with the University of Texas's decision to deny admission to Abigail Fisher.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">In 2008, the year Fisher sent in her application, competition to get into the crown jewel of the Texas university system was stiff. Students entering through the university's Top 10 program — a mechanism that granted automatic admission to any teen who graduated in the upper 10 percent of his or her high school class — claimed <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/app/briefs/fisher_appellee_brief.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">92 percent</a> of the in-state spots.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Fisher said in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/us/supreme-court-to-hear-case-on-affirmative-action.html?pagewanted=all" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">news reports that she hoped for the day</a> universities selected students "solely based on their merit and if they work hard for it." But Fisher failed to graduate in the top 10 percent of her class, meaning she had to compete for the limited number of spaces up for grabs.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">She and other applicants who did not make the cut were <a href="https://www.justice.gov/crt/about/app/briefs/fisher_appellee_brief.pdf" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">evaluated based on two scores</a>. One allotted points for grades and test scores. The other, called a personal achievement index, awarded points for two required essays, leadership, activities, service and "special circumstances." Those included socioeconomic status of the student or the student's school, coming from a home with a single parent or one where English wasn't spoken. And race.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Those two scores, combined, determine admission.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Even among those students, Fisher did not particularly stand out. Court <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/vp/irla/Documents/Brief%20for%20Respondents.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">records show</a> her grade point average (3.59) and SAT scores (1180 out of 1600) were good but not great for the <a href="http://www.parchment.com/c/college/college-1572-University-of-Texas-at-Austin.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">highly selective flagship university</a>. The school's rejection rate that year for the remaining 841 openings was higher than the turn-down rate for students trying to get into Harvard.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">As a result, university officials claim in court filings that even if Fisher received points for her race and every other personal achievement factor, the letter she received in the mail still would have said no.It's true that the university, for whatever reason, offered provisional admission to some students with lower test scores and grades than Fisher. <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/vp/irla/Documents/Brief%20for%20Respondents.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Five of those students were black or Latino.</a> <a href="https://www.utexas.edu/vp/irla/Documents/Brief%20for%20Respondents.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Forty-two were white.</a><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Neither Fisher nor Blum mentioned those 42 applicants in interviews. Nor did they acknowledge the 168 black and Latino students with grades as good as or better than Fisher's who were also denied entry into the university that year. Also left unsaid is the fact that Fisher turned down a standard UT offer under which she could have gone to the university her sophomore year if she earned a 3.2 GPA at another Texas university school in her freshman year.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">In an interview last month, Blum agreed Fisher's credentials and circumstances make it difficult to argue — as he and his supporters have so ardently in public — that but for her race Fisher would have been a Longhorn.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"There are some Anglo students who had lower grades than Abby who were admitted also," Blum told ProPublica. "Litigation like this is not a black and white paradigm."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Blum started his one-man nonprofit, the <a href="http://www.projectonfairrepresentation.org/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Project on Fair Representation</a>, in 2005. The organization is funded by deep-pocketed conservatives to, according to its website, influence "jurisprudence, public policy, and public attitudes regarding race and ethnicity" in voting, education, contracting and employment. To do so, Blum — who is not a lawyer — helps arrange pro bono representation to fight race-based policies that were meant to address inequalities.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">According to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/04/us-usa-court-casemaker-idUSBRE8B30V220121204" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">a Reuters profile</a>, Blum has brought at least a dozen lawsuits against such programs and laws — including four that made it to the Supreme Court. He has two on the current docket, Fisher and the Shelby County, Ala., case challenging a <a href="http://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/shelby-county-v-holder/" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">key provision of the Voting Rights Act</a>.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">In the Fisher case, while the young woman may have lent her name to the lawsuit, the case before the Court has very little to do with her. Her name appears just five times in the thousands of words that make up the body of the complaint. She has already gone on to graduate from Louisiana State University, her second choice, and is working in finance at a firm in Austin.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Asked by a news reporter what harm she had suffered, she cited only her inability to tap into UT's alumni network and possibly missing out on a better first job. If she wins, Fisher seeks only the return of her application fee and housing deposit — a grand total of $100 in damages.So while the Fisher case has been billed as a referendum on affirmative action, its backers have significantly grander ambitions: They seek to make the case a <a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">referendum on the </a><a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">14th Amendment</a><a href="https://www.loc.gov/rr/program/bib/ourdocs/14thamendment.html" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;"> itself</a>. At issue is whether the Constitution's equal protection clause, drafted by Congress during <a href="http://www.howard.edu/library/reference/guides/reconstructionera/default.htm" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Reconstruction</a> to ensure the rights of black Americans, also prohibits the use of race to help them overcome the nation's legacy of racism.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">The Supreme Court has never ruled that the Constitution bars any and all laws and government programs that consider race. But Blum and his supporters, seeing an opening with the current Court, seek to overturn more than a century of precedent.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">The true crux of the suit is not Fisher's failed application, but that government officials violate the constitutional rights of white Americans when they consider race in a way that might help African-Americans and Latinos.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"An argument can be made that it is simply impossible to tease out down to the last student who would have been admitted, and who would have not been admitted, had they been a different skin color," Blum said. "What we know is skin color is weighed and ethnicity is weighed by the University of Texas in their admissions process, and that alone is enough to strike down the plan."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Blum and his supporters say the reasoning is simple. The Constitution is colorblind and the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment prohibits the government from treating people differently because of race.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">It's an argument first successfully championed by the NAACP and other civil rights groups, most notably in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, in which the Supreme Court declared the notion of "separate but equal" to be a fallacy.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"In its history, colorblindness has this progressive, anti-racist push behind it," said Ian Haney-López, a constitutional scholar at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">But following the Brown decision, the very groups that had ardently — and violently — defended laws mandating separation by race used the notion of a colorblind Constitution to challenge court orders to integrate schools.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"They began to say, yes, the Constitution is colorblind, and so the state cannot distinguish between races when it tried to remedy segregation," he said.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">As a result of Southern resistance, it would take six years after Brown before <a href="http://www.rubybridges.com/story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">6-year old Ruby Bridges</a>, wearing crisp white socks and black-bowed shoes, became the first black student to attend a white elementary school in the South. The image of the diminutive brown-skinned girl who needed U.S. marshals to protect her from an angry white mob inspired Norman Rockwell to preserve the moment in a painting that now hangs in the White House occupied by the first black president.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Initially, the Supreme Court unambiguously knocked those arguments down. In <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0402_0001_ZO.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">a 1971 ruling</a>, it said that government could not mandate colorblindness when doing so would defeat the integration requirement of Brown v. Board of Education. A few years later, in a <a href="http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0438_0265_ZS.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">ruling on affirmative action</a>, Justice Harry Blackmun wrote, "In order to get beyond racism, we must first take race into account. There is no other way."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">But as the Supreme Court's make-up has grown more conservative, it has taken up a steady stream of <a href="http://www.doi.gov/pmb/eeo/cases/reverse.cfm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">so-called reverse discrimination cases</a>, in which white plaintiffs have argued that race-specific measures born of the civil rights movement discriminate against white Americans and violate the 14th Amendment.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Supreme Court decisions have eroded programs and laws that use race to remedy inequalities, but not eliminated them altogether. And in a 2003 opinion written by centrist Sandra Day O'Connor, the justices narrowly upheld affirmative action in college admissions when it is the only means to ensure diversity.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">But the Court's make-up changed in what scholars consider a significant way when Samuel Alito, considered the third most conservative Supreme Court justice since 1937, replaced O'Connor in 2006. Since then, several justices have made their constitutional disdain for race-conscious programs known. In a controversial 2007 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts sent a clear message when he used the equal protection argument at play in Brown v. Board of Education to strike down voluntary desegregation plans in schools.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Evoking a colorblind Constitution, Roberts said, "The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race, is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">And just last month during oral arguments over the constitutionality of a key aspect of the Voting Rights Act, Justice Antonin Scalia derisively called what's considered the most successful civil rights law in history <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/voting-rights-act-supreme-court_n_2768942.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">a "racial entitlement."</a><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Public opinion on race has changed over time as well. In the 1950s, surveys show, most white Americans believed that black Americans faced substantial discrimination but that they themselves experienced little. Today, despite gaping disparities between black and white Americans in income, education, health care, homeownership, employment and college admissions, <a href="https://now.tufts.edu/news-releases/whites-believe-they-are-victims-racism-more-o" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">a majority of white Americans</a> now believe they are just as likely, or more likely, to face discrimination as black Americans.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Blum chose the University of Texas to mount what could be a decisive challenge to affirmative action in college admissions because it already had what was regarded as a "race-neutral" process — the Top 10 program. Since many Texas high schools remain segregated, <a href="http://www.texastop10.princeton.edu/reports/forthcoming/capitalizing_on_segregation.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">taking the top 10 percent of students</a> from black and Latino high schools ensured a substantial population of students of color at the UT.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">As a consequence, Blum believed he could challenge whether the additional use of race to fill out the entering class passed constitutional muster.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">To get standing in court, Blum needed a victim. That's when he started looking for a version of the Brown family, someone who could represent the arguable hurt caused when public officials used race.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">This approach, too, mirrors an NAACP tactic from half a century ago. Then, knowing the Supreme Court was unlikely to throw out segregation in one fell swoop, the civil rights group brought a narrower challenge to segregated school facilities first.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">One of those cases, ironically, targeted the same university as Blum — the University of Texas at Austin. The university, which had been closed to black students since its founding, denied the <a href="https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jrs01" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">law school application</a> of Heman Marion Sweatt because the state constitution required that black and white students attend separate schools.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Because Texas had no black law school, the NAACP sued, arguing that the state violated the constitutional mandate to provide equal facilities for black and white students. The Supreme Court ruled that the hastily put together black law school created to avoid admitting Sweatt could not possibly be equal. It ordered Texas to admit Sweatt as its first black student in 1950.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">That suit launched the stone that would shatter separate but equal just four years later when the Court struck down segregation in schools in Brown.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Blum and his supporters hope to use the Fisher case, and the 14th Amendment challenge to the Voting Rights Act that Blum is also behind, in the same way.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">According to Blum, the Constitution sees affirmative action policies — in college, in contracting, in employment — and Jim Crow laws as twin evils.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"I don't see the distinction," he said.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">But several constitutional scholars interviewed for this piece dispute this notion. Neil Siegel of Duke University called this interpretation of the 14th Amendment "perverse." Georgetown law professor Girardeau A. Spann called it "discriminatory."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">While the 14th Amendment doesn't mention race, the drafters went on to pass <a href="https://sblog.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Fisher-v-2.-UT-Austin-PDF.pdf" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">race-specific legislation</a> aimed at helping former slaves and other black Americans overcome more than a century of racial oppression.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Erwin Chemerinsky, founding dean of the University of California, Irvine School of Law, said that the concept of colorblindness holds great rhetorical appeal but that "there is no basis for concluding that the 14th Amendment equal protection clause requires colorblindness." In drafting the 14th Amendment, he said, Congress recognized "an enormous difference between a white majority disadvantaging minorities and a white majority acting to remedy past discrimination."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Conservatives challenging these types of programs purport to champion the legacy of the civil rights movement, Haney-Lopez said, but the historical roots of their efforts are much more cynical.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"I think that is incredibly important that people realize that today's proponents of colorblindness pretend that they are the heirs to Thurgood Marshall and John Marshall Harlan," he said. "But that is a lie. They are the heirs of Southern resistance to integration. And the colorblindness arguments that they use come directly from the Southern efforts to defeat Brown v. Board of Education."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Ilya Shapiro, a senior constitutional studies fellow at the Cato Institute, which filed an amicus brief supporting Fisher, thinks otherwise.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">"I am not going to speak to anyone else's motives. It is unfair to paint people with the Jim Crow brush because they have those kinds of arguments," he said. "I don't like people being judged based on the color of their skin." If a program "treats people different because one has a different skin color, I find that offensive and I think the Constitution does as well."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">But when asked why the drafters created programs targeted to black Americans if they did not intend the Constitution to allow the government to use race to help minority groups, Shapiro said, "It was a curious period."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">At the same time Congress drafted the equal protection clause, he said, it also "voted for segregated schools in the District of Columbia."<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">That example is the very same one that segregationists Strom Thurmond and Richard Brevard Russell used when they drafted the <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/supremecourt/rights/sources_document2.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(0, 105, 151); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">1956 Southern Manifesto</a> urging officials to resist the Supreme Court's use of the equal protection clause to overturn school segregation.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">The impact of a ruling that bans all racial considerations by universities, employers and governments "could have devastating impact on the ability to overcome past inequalities," Siegel said.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Few experts think Blum and his supporters are apt to win that big a victory in the Fisher case. And so he will likely be on the hunt again for another case, and another perfect plaintiff.</div><footer class="article-footer" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; margin: 2.5rem 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both;"><div class="author-bio" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 25.9125px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both;"><div class="info" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.625; vertical-align: baseline;">Nikole Hannah-Jones covered civil rights and fair housing for ProPublica. Previously, she covered governmental issues, the census, and race and ethnicity at The Oregonian.</div><ul class="contact" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: outside; list-style-image: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.2em 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; border-radius: 0.15em; overflow: hidden;"><a class="contact-method" title="Email" href="mailto:Nikole.Hannah-Jones@propublica.org" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.25em 0.65em 0.25em 0.5em; border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: inherit; display: block; background: rgb(240, 239, 238);"><svg class="icon" width="24" height="24"><use xlink:href="#icon-email" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></svg> Nikole.Hannah-Jones@propublica.org</a></li> <li style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0.2em 0.2em 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; border-radius: 0.15em; overflow: hidden;"><a class="contact-method" title="Twitter" href="https://twitter.com/nhannahjones" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0.25em 0.65em 0.25em 0.5em; border: none; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: inherit; display: block; background: rgb(240, 239, 238);"><svg class="icon" width="24" height="24"><use xlink:href="#icon-twitter" xmlns:xlink="xlink" /></svg> @nhannahjones</a></li></ul></div></footer></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div><div>=</div><div>
</div><div>an 6 22</div><div>
</div><div>The University of Houston has settled with a conservative free speech group that sued the school over an anti-discrimination policy that the group argued was overly broad and violated students’ First Amendment rights.</div><div>
</div><div>As part of the settlement, UH officials will have to pay $30,000 in attorney’s fees to Speech First and UH officials must keep in place its amended anti-discrimination policy.</div><div>
</div><div>In this case, Speech First, a group that actively litigates college policies they view as student censorship, targeted UH’s anti-discrimination policy that has been in place since 2012. According to that policy, unlawful harassment was defined as “humiliating, abusive, or threatening conduct or behavior that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group” or conduct that created a hostile living or working environment or interfered with an individual’s academic or work performance</div><div>
</div><div>Examples of such harassment included “epithets or slurs,” “negative stereotyping” and “denigrating jokes.”</div><div>
</div><div>It also stated “[m]inor verbal and nonverbal slights, snubs, annoyances, insults, or isolated incidents including, but not limited to microaggressions,” would be considered harassment if the actions occurred repeatedly and targeted a particular group of people based on their race, sex or gender or other status that keeps them protected from discrimination.</div><div>
</div><div>But in May, three months after Speech First filed its suit, the university amended its policy. Later that same month, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, a Reagan appointee, blocked the university from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy.</div><div>“This is a huge win for the First Amendment,” said Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, a group that pushes back against what it calls “toxic censorship culture” on campuses. “It sends a message to the University of Houston and other universities that they will be held accountable if they enact unconstitutional policies on campus.”</div><div>
</div><div>In a statement, UH officials said they have come to an “amicable” agreement and consider the matter resolved.</div><div>“As a result of our discussions, a revised anti-discrimination policy has been adopted,” Chris Stipes, director of UH media relations, said in a statement. “The UH System remains committed to protecting the constitutional rights of our students and employees.”</div><div>Speech First filed the lawsuit on behalf of three conservative students identified only as “A,” “B” and “C” who said they felt they could not express their beliefs on campus for fear they would be punished under UH’s older policy.</div><div>As examples, the lawsuit listed how the students feared retaliation if they shared personal beliefs such as “affirmative action in college admissions is racist” or “allowing biologically male athletes who identify as female to compete in women’s sports is fundamentally unjust.” All three said they were uncomfortable acknowledging fellow students’ preferred pronouns outside of a cisgender identity.</div><div>In documents, lawyers for the university argued that its policy specifically addresses unlawful harassment of students and would not consider those statements and ideas provided by the students in the lawsuit as a violation of the policy.</div><div>
</div><div>University lawyers have also argued there is no evidence that the anti-discrimination policy has ever been used against students.</div><div>
</div><div>When the university amended the anti-discrimination policy in mid-May, it specified that harassment must rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment for employees or to deny a student equal access to education by creating a hostile learning environment. That is the standard set by the 1999 Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which states that schools violate the Title IX ban on sex-based discrimination if they remain deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment to the point it prevents a student from receiving an equitable education.</div><div>Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights under former President Donald Trump used that definition of sexual harassment when it issued revised rules and standards for investigating Title IX violations on college campuses, which was a more narrow definition for sexual harassment than any previously used.</div><div>Speech First lawyers argue that many universities, including UH, adopt harassment policies outside of that guidance that are too broad, providing a chilling effect to students’ free speech.</div><div>A UH lawyer said the definition of sexual harassment in the Davis case did not limit schools from enacting other policies to address unlawful harassment and should not be considered the standard for universities as they craft disciplinary policies to address other instances of inappropriate behavior.</div><div>
</div><div>“Speech First has tried to bootstrap Davis in numerous other cases, and to date none has held that Davis imposed the outer bounds for addressing unlawful harassment,” they wrote.</div><div>But when Hughes, the federal district judge, granted a preliminary injunction late last month preventing UH from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy, he sided with Speech First.</div><div>
</div><div>“Restraint on free speech is prohibited absent limited circumstances carefully proscribed by the Supreme Court. Any limitation deserves the upmost scrutiny,” he wrote, stating the group would likely win the case. “The University says that it will be injured if recourse is unavailable for harassment against students of faculty. As important as that is, students also need defenses against arbitrary professors.”</div><div>
</div><div>This is the latest victory for Speech First, which has sued universities across the country over free speech policies, including the University of Texas at Austin. The case against UT-Austin took a similar path. Speech First sued the university in 2018 over language in multiple freedom of expression policies. UT-Austin amended some of the policies before settling with the organization and agreed to discontinue the university’s Campus Climate Response Team, part of the division of student affairs and the division of diversity and student engagement that investigated student reports of bias incidents on campus.</div><div>
</div><div>This lawsuit comes as other free speech debates have bubbled up on Texas college campuses throughout this past academic year.</div><div>
</div><div>At Collin College in North Texas, three professors have sued the school, arguing their contracts were not renewed in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights on a variety of issues, including one professor who publicly criticized the school’s COVID-19 response.</div><div>Nearby at the University of North Texas in Denton, thousands of students and community members signed a petition calling on school administrators to expel a right-wing student, arguing her campus activism and statements opposing gender-affirming care for transgender children created an unsafe learning environment for transgender students on campus.</div><div>
</div><div>In that instance, administrators denounced the student’s comments, but they said she and her right-wing campus group had not violated any university policies.</div>=
an 6 22
The University of Houston has settled with a conservative free speech group that sued the school over an anti-discrimination policy that the group argued was overly broad and violated students’ First Amendment rights.
As part of the settlement, UH officials will have to pay $30,000 in attorney’s fees to Speech First and UH officials must keep in place its amended anti-discrimination policy.
In this case, Speech First, a group that actively litigates college policies they view as student censorship, targeted UH’s anti-discrimination policy that has been in place since 2012. According to that policy, unlawful harassment was defined as “humiliating, abusive, or threatening conduct or behavior that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group” or conduct that created a hostile living or working environment or interfered with an individual’s academic or work performance.
Examples of such harassment included “epithets or slurs,” “negative stereotyping” and “denigrating jokes.”
It also stated “[m]inor verbal and nonverbal slights, snubs, annoyances, insults, or isolated incidents including, but not limited to microaggressions,” would be considered harassment if the actions occurred repeatedly and targeted a particular group of people based on their race, sex or gender or other status that keeps them protected from discrimination.
But in May, three months after Speech First filed its suit, the university amended its policy. Later that same month, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, a Reagan appointee, blocked the university from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy.
“This is a huge win for the First Amendment,” said Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, a group that pushes back against what it calls “toxic censorship culture” on campuses. “It sends a message to the University of Houston and other universities that they will be held accountable if they enact unconstitutional policies on campus.”
In a statement, UH officials said they have come to an “amicable” agreement and consider the matter resolved.
“As a result of our discussions, a revised anti-discrimination policy has been adopted,” Chris Stipes, director of UH media relations, said in a statement. “The UH System remains committed to protecting the constitutional rights of our students and employees.”
Speech First filed the lawsuit on behalf of three conservative students identified only as “A,” “B” and “C” who said they felt they could not express their beliefs on campus for fear they would be punished under UH’s older policy.
As examples, the lawsuit listed how the students feared retaliation if they shared personal beliefs such as “affirmative action in college admissions is racist” or “allowing biologically male athletes who identify as female to compete in women’s sports is fundamentally unjust.” All three said they were uncomfortable acknowledging fellow students’ preferred pronouns outside of a cisgender identity.
In documents, lawyers for the university argued that its policy specifically addresses unlawful harassment of students and would not consider those statements and ideas provided by the students in the lawsuit as a violation of the policy.
University lawyers have also argued there is no evidence that the anti-discrimination policy has ever been used against students.
When the university amended the anti-discrimination policy in mid-May, it specified that harassment must rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment for employees or to deny a student equal access to education by creating a hostile learning environment. That is the standard set by the 1999 Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which states that schools violate the Title IX ban on sex-based discrimination if they remain deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment to the point it prevents a student from receiving an equitable education.
Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights under former President Donald Trump used that definition of sexual harassment when it issued revised rules and standards for investigating Title IX violations on college campuses, which was a more narrow definition for sexual harassment than any previously used.
Speech First lawyers argue that many universities, including UH, adopt harassment policies outside of that guidance that are too broad, providing a chilling effect to students’ free speech.
A UH lawyer said the definition of sexual harassment in the Davis case did not limit schools from enacting other policies to address unlawful harassment and should not be considered the standard for universities as they craft disciplinary policies to address other instances of inappropriate behavior.
“Speech First has tried to bootstrap Davis in numerous other cases, and to date none has held that Davis imposed the outer bounds for addressing unlawful harassment,” they wrote.
But when Hughes, the federal district judge, granted a preliminary injunction late last month preventing UH from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy, he sided with Speech First.
“Restraint on free speech is prohibited absent limited circumstances carefully proscribed by the Supreme Court. Any limitation deserves the upmost scrutiny,” he wrote, stating the group would likely win the case. “The University says that it will be injured if recourse is unavailable for harassment against students of faculty. As important as that is, students also need defenses against arbitrary professors.”
This is the latest victory for Speech First, which has sued universities across the country over free speech policies, including the University of Texas at Austin. The case against UT-Austin took a similar path. Speech First sued the university in 2018 over language in multiple freedom of expression policies. UT-Austin amended some of the policies before settling with the organization and agreed to discontinue the university’s Campus Climate Response Team, part of the division of student affairs and the division of diversity and student engagement that investigated student reports of bias incidents on campus.
This lawsuit comes as other free speech debates have bubbled up on Texas college campuses throughout this past academic year.
At Collin College in North Texas, three professors have sued the school, arguing their contracts were not renewed in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights on a variety of issues, including one professor who publicly criticized the school’s COVID-19 response.
Nearby at the University of North Texas in Denton, thousands of students and community members signed a petition calling on school administrators to expel a right-wing student, arguing her campus activism and statements opposing gender-affirming care for transgender children created an unsafe learning environment for transgender students on campus.
In that instance, administrators denounced the student’s comments, but they said she and her right-wing campus group had not violated any university policies.

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The University of Houston has settled with a conservative free speech group that sued the school over an anti-discrimination policy that the group argued was overly broad and violated students’ First Amendment rights.As part of the settlement, UH officials will have to pay $30,000 in attorney’s fees to Speech First and UH officials must keep in place its amended anti-discrimination policy.In this case, Speech First, a group that actively litigates college policies they view as student censorship, targeted UH’s anti-discrimination policy that has been in place since 2012. According to that policy, unlawful harassment was defined as “humiliating, abusive, or threatening conduct or behavior that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group” or conduct that created a hostile living or working environment or interfered with an individual’s academic or work performance.Examples of such harassment included “epithets or slurs,” “negative stereotyping” and “denigrating jokes.”It also stated “[m]inor verbal and nonverbal slights, snubs, annoyances, insults, or isolated incidents including, but not limited to microaggressions,” would be considered harassment if the actions occurred repeatedly and targeted a particular group of people based on their race, sex or gender or other status that keeps them protected from discrimination.But in May, three months after Speech First filed its suit, the university amended its policy. Later that same month, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, a Reagan appointee, blocked the university from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy.“This is a huge win for the First Amendment,” said Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, a group that pushes back against what it calls “toxic censorship culture” on campuses. “It sends a message to the University of Houston and other universities that they will be held accountable if they enact unconstitutional policies on campus.”...In a statement, UH officials said they have come to an “amicable” agreement and consider the matter resolved.“As a result of our discussions, a revised&...anti-discrimination policy has been adopted,” Chris Stipes, director of UH media relations, said in a statement. “The UH System remains committed to protecting the constitutional rights of our students and employees.”Speech First filed the lawsuit on behalf of three conservative students identified only as “A,” “B” and “C” who said they felt they could not express their beliefs on campus for fear they would be punished under UH’s older policy.As examples, the lawsuit listed how the students feared retaliation if they shared personal beliefs such as “affirmative action in college admissions is racist” or “allowing biologically male athletes who identify as female to compete in women’s sports is fundamentally unjust.” All three said they were uncomfortable acknowledging fellow students’ preferred pronouns outside of a cisgender identity.In documents, lawyers for the university argued that its policy specifically addresses unlawful harassment of students and would not consider those statements and ideas provided by the students in the lawsuit as a violation of the policy.University lawyers have also argued there is no evidence that the anti-discrimination policy has ever been used against students.When the university amended the anti-discrimination policy in mid-May, it specified that harassment must rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment for employees or to deny a student equal access to education by creating a hostile learning environment. That is the standard set by the 1999 Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which states that schools violate the Title IX ban on sex-based discrimination if they remain deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment to the point it prevents a student from receiving an equitable education.Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights under former President Donald Trump used that definition of sexual harassment when it issued revised rules and standards for investigating Title IX violations on college campuses, which was a more narrow definition for sexual harassment than any previously used.Speech First lawyers argue that many universities, including UH, adopt harassment policies outside of that guidance that are too broad, providing a chilling effect to students’ free speech.A UH lawyer said the definition of sexual harassment in the Davis case did not limit schools from enacting other policies to address unlawful harassment and should not be considered the standard for universities as they craft disciplinary policies to address other instances of inappropriate behavior.“Speech First has tried to bootstrap Davis in numerous other cases, and to date none has held that Davis imposed the outer bounds for addressing unlawful harassment,” they wrote.But when Hughes, the federal district judge, granted a preliminary injunction late last month preventing UH from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy, he sided with Speech First.“Restraint on free speech is prohibited absent limited circumstances carefully proscribed by the Supreme Court. Any limitation deserves the upmost scrutiny,” he wrote, stating the group would likely win the case. “The University says that it will be injured if recourse is unavailable for harassment against students of faculty. As important as that is, students also need defenses against arbitrary professors.”This is the latest victory for Speech First, which has sued universities across the country over free speech policies, including the University of Texas at Austin. The case against UT-Austin took a similar path. Speech First sued the university in 2018 over language in multiple freedom of expression policies. UT-Austin amended some of the policies before settling with the organization and agreed to discontinue the university’s Campus Climate Response Team, part of the division of student affairs and the division of diversity and student engagement that investigated student reports of bias incidents on campus.This lawsuit comes as other free speech debates have bubbled up on Texas college campuses throughout this past academic year.At Collin College in North Texas, <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/08/collin-college-free-speech-lawsuit/" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">three professors have sued the school</a>, arguing their contracts were not renewed in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights on a variety of issues, including one professor who publicly criticized the school’s COVID-19 response.Nearby at the University of North Texas in Denton, thousands of students and community members signed a petition calling on school administrators to <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/04/14/university-north-texas-student-culture-war/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">expel a right-wing student,</a> arguing her campus activism and statements opposing gender-affirming care for transgender children created an unsafe learning environment for transgender students on campus.In that instance, administrators denounced the student’s comments, but they said she and her right-wing campus group had not violated any university policies.==scotus? <a href="https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/affirmative-action-is-not-what-its-enemies-say-it-is-but-that-doesnt-mean-that-six-republican-justices-wont-pretend-to-believe-it/">https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/affirmative-action-is-not-what-its-enemies-say-it-is-but-that-doesnt-mean-that-</a>six-republican-justices-wont-pretend-to-https://www.alternet.org/2022/02/affirmative-action-is-not-what-its-enemies-say-it-is-but-that-doesnt-mean-that-six-republican-justices-wont-pretendit/=color blind means racism does not exist, esp systemic, CRT dog whistle ~ affirmative action presumably<a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/five/foxs-jesse-watters-praises-glenn-youngkin-claiming-hes-bringing-back-martin-luther-kings">https://www.mediamatters.org/five/foxs-jesse-watters-praises-glenn-youngkin-claiming-hes-bringing-back-martin-luther-kings</a><div>=</div><

https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/critical-race-theory-affirmative-action

How the critical race theory hysteria may be a death blow for affirmative action" 

==

https://www.alternet.org/2019/10/federal-judge-rules-harvard-can-continue-to-use-race-as-one-of-its-factors-in-admissions-decisions

Harpalani...

For much of the year, Mr. Blum works out of a gray-shingle house in South Thomaston, Me., overlooking Penobscot Bay, in a stark landscape famously painted by Andrew Wyeth. He has a consulting business analyzing esoteric municipal bonds for a handful of wealthy families.

>DonorsTrust, which distributes money from conservative and libertarian contributors to various causes, and nonprofits related to DonorsTrust gave almost $2.9 million to support Mr. Blum’s work from 2010 to 2015, said Lawson R. Bader, the trust’s president, citing the most recent publicly available figures

Most of that money came from the

Searle Freedom Trust, according to tax records and Kimberly O. Dennis, the president and chief executive of the trust, which was founded by Daniel C. Searle of the Searle pharmaceutical company.

The goals of the Searle trust, as stated on its website, are to create “an environment that promotes individual freedom and economic liberties, while encouraging personal responsibilities and a respect for traditional American values.” The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, another small-government group, gave $100,000 to the DonorsTrust for Mr. Blum’s causes in 2014 and $50,000 in 2012, tax records show.  For Mr. Blum’s first suit, the racial gerrymandering case in 1993, he hired a real estate lawyer who agreed to represent him for six months for $7,000, Mr. Blum recalled. But when the case went to the Supreme Court, he knew he needed a Washington lawyer, and found a rising young lawyer willing to take it for nothing at the prestigious Wiley Rein law firm.

Wiley Rein has been practically his house counsel. Fisher and Shelby were argued by Bert Rein, an antitrust and commercial litigator who was a State Department appointee in the Nixon administration. Mr. Rein described Mr. Blum as a client like any other, but one who believed in legal activism, and said his cases were not done pro bono but for a fee, which may be negotiable. “We are not a ‘cause’ law firm,” Mr. Rein said. (In some cases Mr. Blum has won, his side has been able to recoup legal fees from the losing side.)

The Harvard case is being argued by William Consovoy, a younger partner who recently split away. He clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas, whom he has called “my hero.”

Some civil rights activists think that in suing Harvard, Mr. Blum is picking the wrong fight. Armand Derfner, a civil rights lawyer and constitutional law scholar in residence at the Charleston School of Law in South Carolina, said that admission to the Ivy League was arbitrary for reasons that had little to do with race

The University of Houston has settled with a conservative free speech group that sued the school over an anti-discrimination policy that the group argued was overly broad and violated students’ First Amendment rights.<div>
</div><div>As part of the settlement, UH officials will have to pay $30,000 in attorney’s fees to Speech First and UH officials must keep in place its amended anti-discrimination policy.</div><div>
</div><div>In this case, Speech First, a group that actively litigates college policies they view as student censorship, targeted UH’s anti-discrimination policy that has been in place since 2012. According to that policy, unlawful harassment was defined as “humiliating, abusive, or threatening conduct or behavior that denigrates or shows hostility or aversion toward an individual or group” or conduct that created a hostile living or working environment or interfered with an individual’s academic or work performance</div><div>
</div><div>Examples of such harassment included “epithets or slurs,” “negative stereotyping” and “denigrating jokes.”</div><div>
</div><div>It also stated “[m]inor verbal and nonverbal slights, snubs, annoyances, insults, or isolated incidents including, but not limited to microaggressions,” would be considered harassment if the actions occurred repeatedly and targeted a particular group of people based on their race, sex or gender or other status that keeps them protected from discrimination.</div><div>
</div><div>But in May, three months after Speech First filed its suit, the university amended its policy. Later that same month, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes, a Reagan appointee, blocked the university from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy.</div><div>“This is a huge win for the First Amendment,” said Cherise Trump, executive director of Speech First, a group that pushes back against what it calls “toxic censorship culture” on campuses. “It sends a message to the University of Houston and other universities that they will be held accountable if they enact unconstitutional policies on campus.”</div><div>
</div><div>In a statement, UH officials said they have come to an “amicable” agreement and consider the matter resolved.</div><div>“As a result of our discussions, a revised anti-discrimination policy has been adopted,” Chris Stipes, director of UH media relations, said in a statement. “The UH System remains committed to protecting the constitutional rights of our students and employees.”</div><div>Speech First filed the lawsuit on behalf of three conservative students identified only as “A,” “B” and “C” who said they felt they could not express their beliefs on campus for fear they would be punished under UH’s older policy.</div><div>As examples, the lawsuit listed how the students feared retaliation if they shared personal beliefs such as “affirmative action in college admissions is racist” or “allowing biologically male athletes who identify as female to compete in women’s sports is fundamentally unjust.” All three said they were uncomfortable acknowledging fellow students’ preferred pronouns outside of a cisgender identity.</div><div>In documents, lawyers for the university argued that its policy specifically addresses unlawful harassment of students and would not consider those statements and ideas provided by the students in the lawsuit as a violation of the policy.</div><div>
</div><div>University lawyers have also argued there is no evidence that the anti-discrimination policy has ever been used against students.</div><div>
</div><div>When the university amended the anti-discrimination policy in mid-May, it specified that harassment must rise to the level of creating a hostile work environment for employees or to deny a student equal access to education by creating a hostile learning environment. That is the standard set by the 1999 Supreme Court decision in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education, which states that schools violate the Title IX ban on sex-based discrimination if they remain deliberately indifferent to sexual harassment to the point it prevents a student from receiving an equitable education.</div><div>Two years ago, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights under former President Donald Trump used that definition of sexual harassment when it issued revised rules and standards for investigating Title IX violations on college campuses, which was a more narrow definition for sexual harassment than any previously used.</div><div>Speech First lawyers argue that many universities, including UH, adopt harassment policies outside of that guidance that are too broad, providing a chilling effect to students’ free speech.</div><div>A UH lawyer said the definition of sexual harassment in the Davis case did not limit schools from enacting other policies to address unlawful harassment and should not be considered the standard for universities as they craft disciplinary policies to address other instances of inappropriate behavior.</div><div>
</div><div>“Speech First has tried to bootstrap Davis in numerous other cases, and to date none has held that Davis imposed the outer bounds for addressing unlawful harassment,” they wrote.</div><div>But when Hughes, the federal district judge, granted a preliminary injunction late last month preventing UH from reinstating its original anti-harassment policy, he sided with Speech First.</div><div>
</div><div>“Restraint on free speech is prohibited absent limited circumstances carefully proscribed by the Supreme Court. Any limitation deserves the upmost scrutiny,” he wrote, stating the group would likely win the case. “The University says that it will be injured if recourse is unavailable for harassment against students of faculty. As important as that is, students also need defenses against arbitrary professors.”</div><div>
</div><div>This is the latest victory for Speech First, which has sued universities across the country over free speech policies, including the University of Texas at Austin. The case against UT-Austin took a similar path. Speech First sued the university in 2018 over language in multiple freedom of expression policies. UT-Austin amended some of the policies before settling with the organization and agreed to discontinue the university’s Campus Climate Response Team, part of the division of student affairs and the division of diversity and student engagement that investigated student reports of bias incidents on campus.</div><div>
</div><div>This lawsuit comes as other free speech debates have bubbled up on Texas college campuses throughout this past academic year.</div><div>
</div><div>At Collin College in North Texas, three professors have sued the school, arguing their contracts were not renewed in retaliation for exercising their First Amendment rights on a variety of issues, including one professor who publicly criticized the school’s COVID-19 response.</div><div>Nearby at the University of North Texas in Denton, thousands of students and community members signed a petition calling on school administrators to expel a right-wing student, arguing her campus activism and statements opposing gender-affirming care for transgender children created an unsafe learning environment for transgender students on campus.</div><div>
</div><div>In that instance, administrators denounced the student’s comments, but they said she and her right-wing campus group had not violated any university policies

The war on the southern border, the Muslim ban, and mass detention of immigrants—President Trump seems determined to claw America back into the nation’s racist past one executive order at a time. In its crusade against educational equity</div>, the Justice Department has emerged as the White House’s stealth weapon against civil rights. It is now moving quietly to dismantle the policy of affirmative action: Supposedly aiming to combat “reverse racism,” the administration...;that upheld the principle of encouraging diversity in K-12 and higher education. Although the removal of this guidance does not alter past court precedents or repeal any laws directly, veteran civil-rights advocates are wary that, under Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, the administration has been moving steadily to work “separate but equal” back into the nation’s classrooms.<...

 head of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Project,...

he move as an attempt to “reverse the progress achieved over the more than half century since Brown v. [Board] of Education.” But he added that the law would ultimately “be determined by the Supreme Court and not an Administration which seems bent on promoting division.”...persists in our public schools, if not in the letter of the law, then in the structural and cultural barriers driving de facto school segregation. And in the larger war for equitable education for all, some right-wing Asian Americans have been enlisted to provide a demographic twist on the escalating affirmative-action culture war. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/8/2/16084740/trump-affirmative-action-justice-department-college-admissions" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">The Trump administration’s rollbacks</a> parallel a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/politics/asian-students-affirmative-action-harvard.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">major lawsuit against Harvard University</a>, led by right-wing groups, claiming that Asian Americans and whites have been victimized by admissions policies that unfairly favor black and Latino applicants. Last fall, the Trump administration...shifted its focus in civil-rights enforcement to scrutinizing what it called “intentional race-based discrimination.” The Justice Department <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/30/us/politics/asian-students-affirmative-action-harvard.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">officially backed the suit this week</a>, while the university <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2018/08/27/harvard-makes-its-last-plea-avoid-trial-affirmative-action-case/exc1oei9qC0Pp5mQ0IP8FK/story.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">was filing final briefs in the hopes of avoiding a trial</a>, further bolstering right-wing arguments that programs supporting black and Latino academic advancement are anti-meritocratic and unfairly discriminatory.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">The Harvard case also echoes a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/13/opinion/stuyvesant-new-york-schools-de-blasio.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">debate unfolding in New York</a> over school-diversity policies, where some Asian-American community advocates have assailed efforts to promote racial diversity in the city’s prized magnet schools by altering the testing protocols for acceptance to these schools.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">The Trump administration’s <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/what-betsy-devoss-emphasis-on-choice-means-for-school-segregation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">political reversal on affirmative action</a>, and the advancement of conservative legal attacks in the courts, reflects a generally reactionary climate in the politics of education. As with welfare reform and “zero-tolerance” policing, the pushback against affirmative action cloaks its racist subtext in a rhetoric of “defending” the civil rights of whites and Asian Americans.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">Progressive Asian-American groups <a href="https://advancingjustice-la.org/harvard%20affirmative%20action#.W0jhZtJKjIU" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">warn that their communities are being used a political cudgel</a> in the affirmative-action debate. <a href="http://aaldef.org/AALDEFAmicusBrief-SFFAHarvard.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">Thirty-five Asian-American civil-rights organizations</a> and <a href="http://asianamericancivilrights.org/press-release-academic-experts" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">many academics</a> filed amicus briefs defending affirmative action this week in the Harvard case. Racial barriers remain pervasive in both the K-12 education system and in higher education, and the real problems lie in discrimination on many levels, from social background, to different levels of academic preparedness, to unequal funding, and housing segregation—not simply whether the admissions officer at an elite school sees an Asian surname on the application.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">According to Nicole Ochi, an attorney at Advancing Justice–Los Angeles, “Asian Americans are being used as a wedge in this debate, but really, affirmative action and race-conscious admissions policies are beneficial for all communities of color, including Asian Americans.”<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">
Jason Fong, an Asian-American high-school student who <a href="http://www.advancingjustice-la.org/sites/default/files/Harvard-Filing-12-12-16.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="font-style: inherit; word-spacing: 0.3px; font-weight: inherit; background-color: transparent; box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">joined Advancing Justice’s 2016 amicus brief for the Harvard case</a>, testified, “We know that in real life, an Ivy League pedigree is not enough to stop people from screaming at us to ‘go home’ or to stop U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from picking us up or stop TSA from racially profiling and escorting us off an airplane. Thus, if we are trying to use education as some sort of shield against discrimination, it isn’t working…. I feel it’s important for Asian Americans like myself to ask why we aren’t doing more to fight against racism directly.” He also noted that his activism had led to backlash from other Asian Americans, who condemned him as a “race-traitor.”The <a href="http://aaldef.org/AALDEFAmicusBrief-SFFAHarvard.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund argued in its brief</a> filed on the Harvard case that allegations of anti-Asian discrimination obscure parallel socioeconomic inequities that transcend racial lines: “the Plaintiff’s broad-based attack will harm all minorities, including Asian Americans and especially those Asian American applicants in communities struggling with low educational attainment and low socioeconomic status.”<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">That affirmative action does not work as it should was actually an issue directly tackled in the Obama-era policy guidance that the Trump administration reversed. It was based on a <a href="http://school-diversity.org/picsguidance/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">2007 landmark ruling</a> in Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, which allowed for some limited uses of race as a factor in K-12 student placements. Reflecting past decisions that opposed the use of racial quotas to promote integration, the ruling did not support explicitly race-based admissions criteria, but did acknowledge that there were legitimate uses of “school diversity [as] a compelling government interest,” and schools could apply affirmative-action principles more holistically.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">Fortunately, many school districts nationwide <a href="https://tcf.org/content/report/school-integration-practice-lessons-nine-districts/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">continue to promote proactive school integration</a> through <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/new-yorks-separate-and-unequal-schools/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">community-based programs</a> that aim to equalize funding and resources between predominantly white and predominantly black or Latino schools, or to encourage admissions policies that consider socioeconomic and ethnic background. However, <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/our-schools-are-actually-re-segregating/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">the White House</a> and <a href="https://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/us/2017/11/16/as-school-districts-push-for-integration-decades-old-federal-rule-could-thwart-them/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px 0px 2px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(207, 14, 14); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; outline: 0px !important;">Republican lawmakers</a> have sought to withdraw federal support for these initiatives, signaling opposition even to such voluntary integration efforts to diversify public education.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">Asian Americans are not driving the structural racism of the education system, of course. They have instead been enlisted in an ideological drive to make the education system more exclusionary and hierarchical, in the name of “academic competitiveness”—a drive that erases the very real history of anti-Asian racism and exclusionary immigration policies that is historically intertwined with the history of Jim Crow.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">The political exploitation of Asian-American anxieties in the affirmative-action debate now threatens to pit different communities of color against each other while bolstering the overarching structure of white supremacy. But educational opportunity is not a zero-sum game. Everyone loses when educational institutions pursue false notions of “excellence” at the expense of real social equity—especially the children who must inherit another generation of inequality.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">
<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">===<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">economists <p style="font-style: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">Amici — Professor Susan Dynarski, Professor Harry Holzer, Professor Hilary Hoynes,

Professor Guido W. Imbens, Professor Alan B. Krueger, Professor Helen F. Ladd, Professor

David S. Lee, Professor Trevon D. Logan, Professor Alexandre Mas, Professor Michael

McPherson, Professor Jesse Rothstein, Professor Cecilia Rouse, Professor Robert M. Solow,

Professor Lowell J. Taylor, Professor Sarah Turner, and Professor Douglas Webber — are

leading economists and statisticians who regularly use and teach statistical analytical methods,

including those used by Plaintiff’s expert, Dr. Peter S. Arcidiacono, and Defendant’s expert, Dr.

David Card, in this case. Amici include, among others, a Nobel laureate, four former Chief

Economists of federal agencies, current and former university administrators, editors of

peer-reviewed journals, and multiple professors whose research focuses on higher education.

Amici have a wide range of views about the appropriateness of using race as a factor in college

admissions. However, they share the view that Dr. Card is one of the most outstanding and

respected scholars in the field of econometrics and applied economics, that his statistical

analyses in this case were methodologically sound, and that the criticisms of his modeling

approach in the Brief of Economists as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiff, Dkt. 450

(“Plaintiff’s Amici Br.”), are not based on sound statistical principles or practices. Biographies

of amici are summarized in Appendix A to this brief<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">=<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">aug 2017 nyt<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">no lnx<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">y most standards, Austin Jia holds an enviable position. A rising sophomore at Duke, Mr. Jia attends one of the top universities in the country, setting him up for success.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">But with his high G.P.A., nearly perfect SAT score and activities — debate team, tennis captain and state orchestra — Mr. Jia believes he should have had a fair shot at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Those Ivy League colleges rejected him after he applied in the fall of 2015.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">It was particularly disturbing, Mr. Jia said, when classmates with lower scores than his — but who were not Asian-American, like him — were admitted to those Ivy League institutions.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">“My gut reaction was that I was super disillusioned by how the whole system was set up,” Mr. Jia, 19, said.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">Students like Mr. Jia are now the subject of a lawsuit accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian-Americans in admissions by imposing a penalty for their high achievement and giving preferences to other racial minorities.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">The case, which is clearly aimed for the Supreme Court, puts Asian-Americans front and center in the latest stage of the affirmative action debate. The issue is whether there has been discrimination against Asian-Americans in the name of creating a diverse student body. The Justice Department, which has signaled that it is looking to investigate “intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions,” may well focus on Harvard.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">You have 2 free articles remaining.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">Subscribe to The Times<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">The Harvard case asserts that the university’s admissions process amounts to an illegal quota system, in which roughly the same percentage of African-Americans, Hispanics, whites and Asian-Americans have been admitted year after year, despite fluctuations in application rates and qualifications.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">“It falls afoul of our most basic civil rights principles, and those principles are that your race and your ethnicity should not be something to be used to harm you in life nor help you in life,” said Edward Blum, the president of Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that is suing Harvard.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">EDITORS’ PICKS<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">As a Hurricane Raged, His Wife Was Dying. 911 Couldn’t Help.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">What Happens to #MeToo When a Feminist Is the Accused?<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">A ‘Generationally Perpetuated’ Pattern: Daughters Do More Chores<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">His group, a conservative-leaning nonprofit based in Virginia, has filed similar suits against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Texas at Austin, asserting that white students are at a disadvantage at those colleges because of their admissions policies.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">The federal government potentially has the ability to influence university admissions policies by withholding federal funds under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids racial discrimination in programs that receive federal money.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">In many ways, the system the lawsuit is attacking is one Harvard points to with pride. The university has a long and pioneering history of support for affirmative action, going back at least to when Derek Bok, appointed president of Harvard in 1971, embraced policies that became a national model.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">The university has extended that ethos to many low-income students, allowing them to attend free. Harvard has argued in a Supreme Court brief that while it sets no quotas for “blacks, or of musicians, football players, physicists or Californians,” if it wants to achieve true diversity, it must pay some attention to the numbers. The university has also said that abandoning race-conscious admissions would diminish the “excellence” of a Harvard education.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">Melodie Jackson, a spokeswoman for Harvard, said that the university’s admissions policy was fair; that it looked at each applicant “as a whole person,” consistent with standards established by the Supreme Court; and that it promoted “the ability to work with people from different backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">Harvard’s class of 2021 is 14.6 percent African-American, 22.2 percent Asian-American, 11.6 percent Hispanic and 2.5 percent Native American or Pacific Islander, according to data on the university’s website.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">For the Harvard case, initially filed in 2014, Mr. Blum said, the federal court in Boston has allowed the plaintiffs to demand records from four highly competitive high schools with large numbers of Asian-American students: Stuyvesant High School in New York; Monta Vista High School in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino; Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va.; and the Boston Latin School.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">The goal is to look at whether students with comparable qualifications have different odds of admission that could be correlated with race and how stereotypes influence the process. A Princeton study found that students who identify as Asian need to score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites to have the same chance of admission to private colleges, a difference some have called “the Asian tax.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">
<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6;">The lawsuit also cites Harvard’s Asian-American enrollment at 18 percent in 2013, and notes very similar numbers ranging from 14 to 18 percent at other Ivy League colleges, like Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and Yale.<p style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;">---<div class="css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><div class="css-1h6whtw" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">By most standards, Austin Jia holds an enviable position. A rising sophomore at Duke, Mr. Jia attends one of the top universities in the country, setting him up for success.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">But with his high G.P.A., nearly perfect SAT score and activities — debate team, tennis captain and state orchestra — Mr. Jia believes he should have had a fair shot at Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania. Those Ivy League colleges rejected him after he applied in the fall of 2015.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">It was particularly disturbing, Mr. Jia said, when classmates with lower scores than his — but who were not Asian-American, like him — were admitted to those Ivy League institutions.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">“My gut reaction was that I was super disillusioned by how the whole system was set up,” Mr. Jia, 19, said.</div><aside class="css-14jsv4e" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 160px; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center;" /></div><div class="css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="font-style: inherit; margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><div class="css-1h6whtw" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">Students like Mr. Jia are now the subject of a lawsuit accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian-Americans in admissions by imposing a penalty for their high achievement and giving preferences to other racial minorities.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">The case, which is clearly aimed for the Supreme Court, puts Asian-Americans front and center in the latest stage of the affirmative action debate. The issue is whether there has been discrimination against Asian-Americans in the name of creating a diverse student body. The Justice Department, which has signaled that <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/01/us/politics/trump-affirmative-action-universities.html" title="" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">it is looking to investigate</a>“intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions,” <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/8/3/DOJ-investigation-admissions/" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">may well focus on Harvard</a>.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">----<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">2x<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">
<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">students for fair admissions<div data-testid="inline-message" class="InlineMessage-inline--2ysnq" style="margin: 25px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.1875rem; vertical-align: baseline; box-sizing: border-box; width: calc(100% - 40px); max-width: 630px; text-align: center;"><div class="InlineMessage-topLine--9lEO3" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px auto 18px; padding: 0px; border-width: 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 72px;"><div class="css-1yeziki" style="margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><div data-id="100000005338878" data-slug="04DAILY-player-flex" class="css-nfnnd5 styles-embeddedInteractive--2TVzQ styles-sizeMediumInteractive--3laJi" style="margin: 1.5rem auto 1.5rem 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 0; vertical-align: baseline; width: 600px; text-align: center; overflow: hidden; max-width: 600px;"><div class="css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><div class="css-1h6whtw" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">His group, a conservative-leaning nonprofit based in Virginia, has filed similar suits against the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Texas at Austin, asserting that white students are at a disadvantage at those colleges because of their admissions policies.</div><span style="margin-left: auto; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; align-items: center;" /><aside class="css-14jsv4e" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 160px; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center;"></aside></div><div class="css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><div class="css-1h6whtw" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">The federal government potentially has the ability to influence university admissions policies by withholding federal funds under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids racial discrimination in programs that receive federal money.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">In many ways, the system the lawsuit is attacking is one Harvard points to with pride. The university has a long and pioneering history of support for affirmative action, going back at least to when Derek Bok, appointed president of Harvard in 1971, embraced policies that became a national model.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">The university has extended that ethos to many low-income students, allowing them to attend free. Harvard has argued in a <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://studentsforfairadmissions.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/SFFA-v.-Harvard-Complaint.pdf" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Supreme Court brief</a> that while it sets no quotas for “blacks, or of musicians, football players, physicists or Californians,” if it wants to achieve true diversity, it must pay some attention to the numbers. The university has also said that abandoning race-conscious admissions would diminish the “excellence” of a Harvard education.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">Melodie Jackson, a spokeswoman for Harvard, said that the university’s admissions policy was fair; that it looked at each applicant “as a whole person,” consistent with standards established by the Supreme Court; and that it promoted “the ability to work with people from different backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives.”<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">Harvard’s class of 2021 is 14.6 percent African-American, 22.2 percent Asian-American, 11.6 percent Hispanic and 2.5 percent Native American or Pacific Islander, according to data on the <a class="css-1g7m0tk" href="https://college.harvard.edu/admissions/admissions-statistics" title="" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">university’s website</a>.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">For the Harvard case, initially filed in 2014, Mr. Blum said, the federal court in Boston has allowed the plaintiffs to demand records from four highly competitive high schools with large numbers of Asian-American students: Stuyvesant High School in New York; Monta Vista High School in the Silicon Valley city of Cupertino; Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria, Va.; and the Boston Latin School.</div><aside class="css-14jsv4e" style="margin: 0px 0px 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; width: 160px; -webkit-box-align: center; align-items: center;" /></div><div class="css-18sbwfn StoryBodyCompanionColumn" style="margin: 0px auto 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit;" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" display="display" flex="flex" height="height" px="px" width="width" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><div class="css-1h6whtw" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px calc((100% - 630px) / 2); padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; vertical-align: baseline; width: 630px; max-width: 630px;"><p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">The goal is to look at whether students with comparable qualifications have different odds of admission that could be correlated with race and how stereotypes influence the process. A Princeton study found that students who identify as Asian need to score 140 points higher on the SAT than whites to have the same chance of admission to private colleges, a difference some have called “the Asian tax.”<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="text-align: left; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">The lawsuit also cites Harvard’s Asian-American enrollment at 18 percent in 2013, and notes very similar numbers ranging from 14 to 18 percent at other Ivy League colleges, like Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Princeton and Yale.<p class="css-1i0edl6 e2kc3sl0" style="font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-size-adjust: 100%; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.6rem;" times="times" new="new" roman="roman" serif="serif" vertical-align="vertical-align" baseline="baseline" width="width" px="px" max-width="max-width">....</div></div><p style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px 0px 20px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.6; word-spacing: 0.3px;"></div></div></div></div></div></div><section class="aside-wrap" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 5rem; width: 340px; height: 5123px; position: absolute; right: 85px; top: 30px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="tp-meter" class="meerkat" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; z-index: 9999; width: 1583px; position: fixed; bottom: -763px; left: 0px; transition: bottom 0.5s ease 0s; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><footer class="article-footer narrow new-article-footer" id="article-footer-286803" style="box-sizing: border-box; padding: 0px 370px 0px 160px; background: rgb(255, 255, 255); width: 1170px; max-width: 1170px; margin: auto;"><div class="footer-module narrow author-bio" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 2px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(230, 223, 213); border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 20px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; word-wrap: break-word; margin: 0px; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 29.69px;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 7px 0px 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 29.69px;"><a href="https://www.thenation.com/authors/michelle-chen/" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; text-transform: initial; border-bottom: 2px solid rgb(212, 29, 0) !important; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none !important;">Michelle Chen</a><a class="author-twitter" href="https://twitter.com/@meeshellchen" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; line-height: inherit; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 0.2s ease 0s; text-transform: initial; outline: 0px !important; text-decoration-line: none !important;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 5px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block; text-indent: 100%; white-space: nowrap; overflow: hidden; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 29.69px; width: 20px; height: 25px; position: relative; top: 10px; background: url(" images="images" sprites.svg="sprites.svg" px="px" zoom="zoom">TWITTER</a>Michelle Chen is a contributing writer for The Nation</div></footer>==

bert rien  / wiley shelby v holder

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<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/03/local/la-me-0403-court-affirmative-action-20120403">http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/03/local/la-me-0403-court-affirmative-action-20120403</a>

Civil rights groups and aspiring minority college students have lost the latest bid to get the University of California to resume considering race in its admissions decisions.

Proposition 209 banned the state's public universities from using racial preferences to increase the ranks of black, Latino and Native American students, and the 1996 voter initiative has already withstood several constitutional challenges.

Two years ago, a class of prospective students and affirmative action advocates sued then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and UC President Mark Yudof, alleging that banning racial consideration in admissions resulted in the unfair exclusion of minority students and thus violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

The lawsuit was dismissed last year by U.S. District Judge Samuel Conti, citing previous rulings dating back to a year after Proposition 209's passage that the admissions criteria meet constitutional standards....

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