Promoting colorblind equal opportunity and merit-based public policy
This year the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) is thrilled to celebrate 30 years as one of the only conservative organizations specifically dedicated to issues of civil rights, race, and ethnicity. CEO was founded in 1995 in Washington, D.C. to promote merit-based, colorblind equal opportunity. The organization has produced more than 80 studies on racial preferences at colleges, universities, law schools and medical schools and been instrumental in every effort to overturn racial preferences.
CEO staff have prepared counsel and provided legal theories used in landmark cases; given expert testimony before local, state, and federal executive and legislative bodies; led efforts with like-minded organizations; and debated the issue on campuses across the country. CEO studies of racial preferences in college admissions helped lay the groundwork for litigation, led to nine statewide initiatives to ban preferences, and shaped public opinion on the issue.
In 2022, CEO launched the Civil Rights Fellowship, a talent development program for aspiring lawyers and leaders in policy and academia, who receive instruction and training in civil rights case law, enforcement tools, and public policy. CEO has since hosted and trained more than 40 law students and young policy leaders in Washington, D.C to learn from the premier conservative civil rights experts in the nation.
CEO’s curriculum focuses on America’s foundational documents, history, and conservative legal principles. Our instructors include top government officials, legal scholars, litigators, and influential non-profit leaders. CEO provides fellows with media training, including instruction on writing and publishing effective opinion articles, and participating in media interviews on civil rights issues. Our goal is to strengthen the bench of conservative talent in the areas of civil rights, race, and ethnicity and to push back against the race-conscious policies that have infected our institutions for too long.
This year, CEO welcomed new general counsel Shawna Bray, who joins us from the Federalist Society’s Freedom of Thought Project. Under Shawna’s leadership, CEO has added new focus to our work in the litigation area. CEO also added Civil Rights Fellow alum and former president of her school’s Federalist Society Chapter, Samantha Crane, as Visiting Legal Fellow. Harvard Law School Graduate Anthony Pericolo, also a Civil Rights Fellow alum, is now CEO’s Policy Fellow.
As we celebrate 30 years, it’s worth noting the unrivaled expertise and network that CEO has developed makes it a unique organization for young conservative lawyers to learn, train, and network—creating a pipeline of talent for the next 30 years. We owe it all to supporters like you.
