Dear friends,
Happy New Year from the Center for Equal Opportunity! 2022 was CEO’s 27th year fighting for colorblind equal opportunity and nondiscrimination in America. And while much of D.C. was on break for the holidays, December was one of our busiest months. Here’s our latest:
TESTIFYING BEFORE CONGRESS
CEO staff often present expert testimony on issues of race and ethnicity before local, state, and federal executive and legislative bodies. In December, CEO president and general counsel Devon Westhill was invited to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The hearing was titled: Fairness in Financial Services: Racism and Discrimination in Banking. Mr. Westhill’s testimony focused on the problems associated with using disparate impact analysis to uncover discrimination. He expressed concerns over the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) decision to utilize a disparate impact analysis to identify unlawful discrimination in financial services. As he pointed out, disparate impact is not proof of discrimination. In fact, CFPB’s use of disparate impact harms minorities most—as is often the case with misguided, race-conscious public policy. You can read Mr. Westhill full testimony here.
SUPREME COURT CASES UPDATE
The U.S. Supreme Court has now heard arguments in the landmark Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College case. As you know, the court is considering a challenge to the use of racially preferential undergraduate student admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. CEO has played a major role in these cases, filing briefs at every stage, producing multiple studies on the use of racial preferences at Harvard, coordinating our efforts with allies and appealing to the Court in media appearances and op-eds.
CEO staff has continued to make our case in the court of public opinion. Mr. Westhill recently participated in the Federalist Society’s virtual event Courthouse Steps Oral Argument: SFFA v Harvard, which was aired nationally on C-SPAN; was heavily quoted on the case in the Washington Times; and was profiled by NBC News and elsewhere articulating CEO’s arguments on the cases. CEO chairman Linda Chavez took to the national airwaves to discuss the cases, where she discussed CEO’s more than quarter-century fight against affirmative action in college admissions—including our studies on racial preferences, which can be viewed on CEO’s website. Ms. Chavez was also recently a guest on the Alan Nathan Show discussing the Harvard and University of North Carolina cases. We fully expect the Court to strike down racial preferences in college admissions once and for all when the decision is handed down this summer and we’ll keep you posted on any new developments.
TAKING OUR MESSAGE ON THE ROAD
CEO staff has been hard at work delivering CEO’s message to a national audience. In just the last few weeks, Ms. Chavez was a guest on NPR’s All Things Considered, Newsmax, and American Viewpoints Radio. She provided election night coverage for NPR and has been making her regular weekly appearances on the Beg to Differ podcast and PBS’s To the Contrary. Ms. Chavez also wrote pieces for The Bulwark and Real Clear Politics, and was the emcee for the Jack Miller Center’s National Civics Summit at Mount Vernon, which brought together donors and scholars to discuss how best to improve teaching the nation’s history in secondary schools and universities.
Mr. Westhill has been quite busy as well, delivering speeches around the country, working with allies, meeting with donors, and giving interviews in the media. He was recently quoted several times by the Daily Caller, by Fox Business, Harvard’s student paper The Crimson, and continues his regular appearances on the Lars Larson Show and other podcasts.
CEO board member Jason Riley has written several excellent pieces recently for The Wall Street Journal, including his columns “Black Mayors in the Four Biggest Cities: Is That a Big Deal?” and “Charter Schools’ Success Makes Them a Political Target.”
FROM THE CEO VAULT
The Ronald Reagan Library recently posted this picture of President Reagan and Ms. Chavez commemorating the signing of United States Commission on Civil Rights Act of 1983 and appointing CEO’s future founder Staff Director of the agency:
We are proud of Ms. Chavez’s 50 years of civil rights work—and all these years later she is still fighting the good fight for colorblind equal opportunity.
We hope you had a great holiday and wish you all a Happy New Year!
Rudy Gersten
Executive Director
