Dear CEO friends and allies,
As you may already know, today is “Giving Tuesday.” The Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) is the only organization in America dedicated to fighting against race-based public policy 24/7, and we are enjoying one of our busiest years yet. But before I ask for your continued support, I wanted to share with you just a few highlights of our most recent work.
- Critical Race Theory. Once an obscure academic endeavor, CRT has burst into national mainstream consciousness. CEO has joined the fierce resistance to CRT’s tenet of race conscious equity of outcome by debating the topic in several venues, regularly sounding the alarm in media outlets as new manifestations of this pernicious ideology emerge, and developing a paper explaining the dangers of CRT which we released this month. You can read the paper, “On the Theory of and Practice of Equality: A Critical Race Theory Backgrounder” here.
- Launched campaign to warn colleges and universities against developing improper Title IX campus sexual misconduct procedures. We contacted schools in every federal judicial circuit including D.C to provide guidance and best practices that schools should implement to align with judicial decisions affirming due process elements of the 2020 U.S. Department of Education Title IX regulation. These best practices relate to procedural due process, impartiality and bias, burdens of proof, standards of evidence, and the right to representation, live hearings, and final reports. Our role as watchdog is vital to ensure schools develop procedures that both protect survivors of sexual misconduct and provide vital due process protections.
- Studies on use of race and ethnicity by colleges, universities, and other public institutions. CEO has released several studies in the past year, including “Pervasive Preferences 2.0” and “Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions.” One of our most recent studies documented the extent to which Californians could expect race discrimination in admissions to return to state colleges and universities if voters passed Proposition 16, which sought to override California’s ban on race as a factor in public university admissions, public employment and contracting. Soon after our report was released, Californians overwhelming voted to reject the attempt to overturn the state’s ban on race in public policy.
- Filing amicus briefs on key court cases. The U.S. Supreme Court issued two opinions in cases in which CEO filed amicus briefs. In Brnovich v. DNC, CEO argued that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act guarantees that voters must be given an equal opportunity to vote regardless of their race or ethnicity, but it does not require a particular racial outcome in voting. The Court’s 6-3 majority made precisely the point CEO argued in our brief. We also filed briefs on the case challenging racial preferences at Harvard, a case that overturned California’s forced donor disclosure requirement, and joined a Pacific Legal Foundation brief urging the Supreme Court to take two voting rights cases.
- TV/radio/podcast appearances, op-eds, interviews, and other media efforts. We published op-eds this past year in, among others, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Washington Examiner, Washington Times, The Bulwark, Townhall.com, National Review, Persuasion, and Real Clear Politics. We made appearances on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and interviewed on NPR, Monocle News, and dozens of national and local radio stations. CEO chairman Linda Chavez is a weekly guest on the podcast Beg to Differ, and was featured in several other podcasts and video presentations, including those of The Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Federalist Society, the Manhattan Institute, The Rational Middle, AEI’s Panorama, and the Jack Miller Center. CEO president and general counsel Devon Westhill is a weekly guest on the Lars Larson nationally syndicated radio show, has given presentations at the Federalist Society and New Civil Liberties Alliance, and is regularly interviewed by local and national media on issues of race and ethnicity.
- Speaking at university campuses and other public events. Although the pandemic limited in-person appearances over the last two years, CEO staff made presentations at the Hauenstein Center, the Jack Miller Center, the Federalist Society, the Center for the Political Future at USC, the Heritage Foundation, and several other organizations and campuses on topics ranging from Critical Race Theory, Voting Rights, Assimilation, and Title IX.
- Coordinating our efforts with other organizations. Mr. Westhill coordinates our efforts with the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, Pacific Legal Foundation, and other organizations on a regular basis. Ms. Chavez chairs the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project Working Group on Race and Sex, and CEO board member Roger Clegg is a member of the group as is CEO senior fellow Stuart Taylor. CEO has also been active with the Title IX Council, set up to monitor and respond to cases filed against implementation of the new sexual harassment and assault regulations on campus. Mr. Westhill serves as the liaison to the offices of state attorneys general.
- Revamped CEO website and digital presence. You can now read more about our recent and upcoming activities, view all our studies, amicus briefs, and op-eds, subscribe to our newsletter, and show your support by visiting our newly revamped and modernized website at www.ceousa.org.
As you know, the Center for Equal Opportunity is the nation’s only conservative civil rights organization doing this kind of work.
And we are asking for your help again today on “Giving Tuesday.” Our work over the years would have been impossible without the generous support of people like you. Can you make a donation today of $50, $100, $200, or even $1000?
Without CEO, there would be a huge gap in the fight for colorblind equal opportunity. The Center for Equal Opportunity was founded in 1995 to focus solely on these issues. Our 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization is based inside the beltway and seeks to end policies that divide Americans by skin color and national origin—and advance policies that unite us. CEO is guided by the principle of colorblind equal opportunity embodied in our original national motto E Pluribus Unum—out of many, one—a principle shared by the vast majority of the American people.
Any donation right now will help us continue our work in monitoring, exposing, and challenging the use of racial and ethnic preferences and other race-based decision-making by the Biden administration, politically correct universities, and their allies. There is, unfortunately, no shortage of institutions that would divide Americans by skin color and national origin—but there is a shortage of organizations like CEO who oppose them.
I truly appreciate all you’ve done for us in the past, and I hope you will continue your generosity this year. I hope to hear from you again soon.
Sincerely,
Linda Chavez
Chairman and Founder
