Dear friends,
Before updating you on our recent activities, we’d like to express that we share with many of you our anger and sorrow over the horrific terrorist attack on Israeli civilians by Hamas. As many student groups and morally bankrupt campus leaders here at home rush to blame the victims of the terror attack and spread antisemitic propaganda, it’s important to state with no ambiguity that the Center for Equal Opportunity fully supports the nation of Israel and its right to defend itself from these barbaric acts of terrorism.
Here’s our latest:
STUDY ON RACIAL AND ETHNIC PREFERENCES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND
In the wake of the landmark Supreme Court victory banning racial preferences in college admissions, CEO has released a new study documenting admissions discrimination based on race and ethnicity at the University of Maryland. The study shows that blacks and Hispanics were admitted with significantly lower undergraduate grade-point averages and SAT scores in the fall freshmen class of 2021 than whites and Asians. CEO has conducted more than 80 such studies of racial preferences at schools across the country. (Check out some of our previous reports on medical schools, law schools, the U.S. Military and Naval Academies, and more on our website).
The study, prepared by CEO research fellow Dr. Althea Nagai, suggests the university will have to make substantial changes to its admissions procedures if it is to comply with the recent landmark rulings in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. Read more about the study in this Washington Examiner article.
CEO will have a major announcement soon on our plans to lead the effort to ensure compliance by universities. Stay tuned.
SECOND ANNUAL CIVIL RIGHTS FELLOWSHIP
CEO held its annual legal fellowship at the end of the summer, hosting law students for a week of seminars and training in caselaw, enforcement practices, and public policy. The first of its kind program, spearheaded by CEO president and general counsel Devon Westhill, took place here in Washington, D.C. CEO fellows took part in a series of seminars with some of the best legal and policy minds in the country, followed by media training to prepare a new generation to speak out on our colorblind principles. Sessions were held at the offices of one of our closest allies, the New Civil Liberties Alliance.
The 2023 Civil Rights fellowship class included law students from some of the best schools in the nation: American University, Arizona State, Brigham Young University, George Mason, Georgia State, Southern University, Stetson, the University of Miami, and the University of Wisconsin.
To read more about the fellowship program, please visit www.ceousa.org/ceo-fellowship.
CHALLENGING DISCRIMINATION AT VIRGINIA SCHOOL
CEO filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Supreme Court supporting petitioners in the case of Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board (the Board). The case involves a challenge to the racially discriminatory overhaul of the admissions practices at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia.
In urging the Court to take the case, CEO explained that the Board has a long and sordid history of manipulating admissions practices at the elite magnet high school for racial purposes. We argue that the indirect way that the Board has sought to racially balance its campus violates the Constitution and represents an example of the next front in the battle against racially discriminatory admissions practices after SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina. We’d like to thank CEO visiting legal fellow Anthony Pericolo and Anita Kinney for their invaluable work on the brief.
Ultimately, we want the Court to take the case and to expand on its position in the Fair Admissions case that “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” It is critical that we resist any efforts to divvy us up by race in order to ensure all benefit from the guarantees enshrined in our Constitution and our civil rights laws.
FIGHTING IN THE COURT OF PUBLIC OPINION
Mr. Westhill has been busy fighting the good fight for colorblind equal opportunity, coordinating with other organizations, pitching our mission to donors, and regularly speaking to local and national media outlets on issues of race and ethnicity. He has been quoted in numerous stories in recent weeks and participated in several important panels, including the Federalist Society’s event on DEI in the executive branch. Check out Mr. Westhill’s interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News and his recent hour long discussion on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal with Jin Hee Lee of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
CEO chairman Linda Chavez recently moderated a panel for the Federalist Society’s In-house Counsel Network, which discussed the impact on business from the Supreme Court’s rulings on affirmative action in higher education. The panel, which was part of Fed Soc’s “Acute Legal Issues Facing In-house Counsels Conference” in Jacksonville, FL, featured former White House Counsel Don McGahn, former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, and former CEO of CK Restaurants Andy Pudzer, among others. The panel discussed the ways in which the Court’s decision has reverberated through corporate America, with so many companies having established diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the wake of widespread social unrest after George Floyd’s murder in 2020.
Ms. Chavez retired this year after 25 years on the board of directors of ABM Industries, a Fortune 500 company, where she chaired the company’s Nominations and Governance Committee. Her experience over those years has given her insight into the way controversies over race and ethnicity often permeate the way major corporations do business. This week, on her regular podcast with Mona Charen, Ms. Chavez also discussed the pernicious effect identity politics has in public life. The latest episode features author Yascha Mounk, whose new book The Identity Trap describes in detail the way diversity, equity, and inclusion ideology now permeates not just academic institutions but the business world and popular culture. The Beg to Differ podcast is available on iTunes.
FROM THE CEO VAULT
As the situation in the Middle East escalates and tensions rise across the globe, many familiar agitators on college campuses are inflaming the situation here at home. The Center for Equal Opportunity has much experience dealing with shameless university activists. In case you missed it, CEO executive director Rudy Gersten put together a comprehensive timeline on our efforts fighting racial preferences in higher education since our founding more than a quarter-century ago.
One particular event that stands out is the protests that erupted back in 2011 when CEO published its study of race preferences in admissions at the University of Wisconsin Law School. Hundreds of students disrupted our press conference at the release of the study in Madison, sparking controversy over whether the university’s own diversity chief provoked the near riot.
The uproar in Wisconsin became national news and was the top story on the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News and several other media outlets. State legislators soon promised to review the university’s admission policy in light of CEO’s findings, and former CEO president and current board member Roger Clegg testified on the UW-Madison study in front of Wisconsin legislature.
We won that battle. But there will more fights to come. CEO will always defend colorblind principles and stand up for what is right. But none of our efforts would be possible without our incredible supporters. We can’t thank you enough.
Please stay safe.
Rudy Gersten
Executive Director
