Keeping Up with CEO | Center for Equal Opportunity

Dear CEO friends,

April was a busy month at the Center for Equal Opportunity with key developments in several of our ongoing projects. We have news to share on CEO’s upcoming summer fellowship, the release of our new study on racial attitudes, our recent efforts on Title IX, and important victories over the Left’s misguided diversity and equity agenda—both in the court of public opinion and in the courtroom.

Here’s the latest…

CIVIL RIGHTS FELLOWSHIP SELECTION DAY

Last week CEO announced the selections for our 2022 Civil Rights Fellowship. The inaugural class is made up of a dozen young men and women, including law students from Harvard, Notre Dame, Marquette, Seton Hall, Brigham Young, Wake Forest, St. Mary’s, George Mason, and the University of Maryland.

The first of its kind program, spearheaded by CEO President and General Counsel Devon Westhill, takes place this August in Washington, D.C. Fellows will receive instruction in civil rights caselaw, enforcement practices, and public policy, as well as media training. They will learn the history of major civil rights laws, key Supreme Court decisions, and current controversies surrounding civil rights law and enforcement.

We are excited and eager to get to work on training this impressive young group.

CEO REPORT SHOWS MAJORITY OF MINORITIES OPPOSE RACIAL PREFERENCES IN ADMISSIONS

CEO just released a valuable new report on attitudes towards racial preferences in college admissions. Dr. Althea Nagai, Senior Research Fellow at CEO, examined data from a recent Pew Research Center survey on racial and ethnic issues, including affirmative action. The data shows that Americans of all races believe grades, test scores, community service, and even athletics and legacy status should be given more weight than race or sex in college admissions. What was particularly significant, however, was that 62 percent of blacks, 66 percent of Hispanics, and 58 percent of Asians believe race should not be a factor in college admissions at all.

Dr. Nagai presented her findings during a webinar sponsored by the Federalist Society’s Regulatory Transparency Project on Race and Sex. The program was moderated by CEO Chairman Linda Chavez. They were joined by Theodore Johnson, Senior Fellow and Director of the Fellows Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. You can watch the webinar here.

CEO’s analysis is particularly timely given the pending cases before the Supreme Court alleging diversity admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina illegally discriminate against Asian students.

PROTECTING DUE PROCESS, FREE SPEECH, AND WOMEN’S SPORTS ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

On April 4th, CEO and 25 other organizations sent a letter to the Department of Education urging the Biden administration to set aside its Title IX rulemaking and protect the core American values of due process, freedom of speech and religion, academic freedom, and equal treatment on the basis of sex that lie at the heart of regulations issued by the Department in 2020.

The coalition seeks to preserve the 2020 Rule that, among other benefits, (1) recognizes for the first time that sexual harassment, including sexual assault, constitutes unlawful sex discrimination; (2) requires schools when investigating and adjudicating allegations of sexual harassment to treat all parties fairly, conclude grievance processes in a reasonably prompt time frame, avoid prejudging the outcome, use trained personnel free from bias and conflicts of interest, consider evidence objectively; and (3) carefully defines “expression” to ensure that institutions do not use the Title IX grievance process to punish people for exercising their right to free speech.

We followed up by joining a petition calling on the Department of Education to stop the weaponization of Title IX and immediately suspend all plans to issue a new regulation. It is imperative that we protect free speech, due process, and women’s sports on college campuses, and our role as watchdog here is vital. We’ll keep you posted on any new developments.

VICTORY OVER CALIFORNIA’S CORPORATE BOARD DIVERSITY MANDATE

Diversity zealots were dealt a punishing blow in court this past month. A California state court handed down a decision blocking the state’s diversity mandate requiring public corporations to elect at least one member to their boards of directors who belongs to an “underrepresented” race, ethnicity, or sexual orientation. Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green wrote that the state’s mandate violates the Equal Protection Clause of the state constitution: “The statue treats similarly situated individuals – qualified potential corporate board members – differently based on their membership (or lack thereof) in certain listed racial, sexual orientation, and gender identity groups. It requires that a certain specific number of board seats be reserved for members of the groups on the list – and necessarily excludes members of other groups from those seats.” We couldn’t agree more.

In a similar case last year, Ms. Chavez filed an amicus brief in a federal suit opposing a statute that required boards of public companies headquartered in California to elect a minimum number of women directors. The Ninth Circuit agreed with our argument.

When even the most liberal circuit court in the nation ends up on our side, the tide is clearly turning. Keep this in mind when the Supreme Court rules on discriminatory affirmative action in college admissions in the consolidated Harvard and North Carolina cases, where CEO will also be filing a brief.

COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION

CEO has been increasingly active in our media efforts and public speaking engagements both at the national and local level. Devon Westhill recently delivered remarks to a grassroots women’s group in Florida on the history of SCOTUS cases involving affirmative action. He discussed the stigma racial preferences create for millions of minorities and made compelling legal and moral arguments for abolishing racial preferences in college admissions. We encourage you to watch his full speech.

Mr. Westhill frequently communicates CEO’s mission on the airwaves as well. In his weekly appearances on the Lars Larson radio show, he recently discussed what the ruling in California’s corporate diversity quota means going forward; weighed in on CEO’s most recent study; and raised red flags on the Biden administration’s “action plan” on racial and ethnic bias in the home appraisal industry. It’s clear the Biden administration wants to make the home appraisal profession “look more like the community it serves,” which invariably means advocating for special treatment on the basis of race in the hiring process. Translation: fighting perceived discrimination with actual discrimination.

It’s not at all clear that discrimination is causing disparities in home evaluations, as Mr. Westhill points out, and we should examine all possible factors, including crime and quality of schools, before jumping to those conclusions. Mr. Westhill cautioned: “Disparity is not bias.”

As always, Linda Chavez has been articulating CEO’s message regularly to a nationwide audience. You can catch Ms. Chavez often in major publications, on cable news, radio, and as always, her weekly appearances on the Beg To Differ podcast, available on iTunes.

CEO board member Jason Riley has devoted several of his recent columns in The Wall Street Journal to our issues, including his new piece “BLM’s Anti-Police Racket Comes Undone” and “MIT Leads the Way in Reinstating the SAT.” And fellow board member and former CEO President and General Counsel Roger Clegg continues promoting our work on National Review Online.

Finally, we’d be remiss if we didn’t take this and every opportunity to thank our supporters. CEO couldn’t exist without the work of our staff, board, allies, but most importantly, all of you. Thank you and please stay engaged. We’ll have more developments soon, including a major announcement next month. Stay tuned.

Appreciatively,

Rudy Gersten
Executive Director

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