CEO On Fire | Center for Equal Opportunity

Dear Supporters,

It has been an absolutely blistering season of impact here at the Center for Equal Opportunity. From critical shifts in federal policy to a record-breaking incoming class of future leaders, our work is driving the national conversation on colorblind equality and constitutional fidelity.

Here is how your support is helping:

Preparing for Our Largest Fellowship Class Yet

The future of the conservative legal movement is converging on Washington, D.C., as we prepare to welcome our Fifth Annual Civil Rights Fellows. The 2026 class represents our largest, most competitive, and record-breaking class to date, selected from an unprecedented pool of highly qualified law students and young leaders across the nation.

These brilliant legal minds and future leaders will soon arrive in the nation’s capital for our intensive, seminar-style program led by top legal experts, litigators, and former government officials. The fellows will dive deep into the history and substance of cornerstone civil rights legislation, learn enforcement methods, and grapple with today’s most pressing legal controversies. They will also undergo media training to effectively advocate for colorblind equality and individual merit to ensure they are prepared to defend constitutional principles in their future careers.

Proven Impact: CEO Alumni in Leadership

Many of our alumni are already being placed in major roles within our movement, demonstrating the immediate and tangible impact of CEO’s talent development program. CEO alumni are now making significant contributions across various sectors:

Executive and Legislative Branches: Holding key positions at the Department of Justice, USDA, Department of State, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency, and Senate Judiciary Committee.
Judiciary: Serving as law clerks in both state and federal courts.
Military & Public Safety: Working as Judge Advocate Generals and prosecutors.
Advocacy: Actively shaping policy through drafting amicus briefs, authoring influential op-eds, and founding new litigation non-profits to advance our shared mission for equal opportunity.

Indeed, CEO’s expanding alumni network has become a trusted resource for identifying exceptional candidates for key roles within the federal government and beyond. Ladisa Onyiliogwu, a distinguished alumna of our inaugural 2022 Civil Rights Fellowship class, was recently appointed as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the USDA. She will be working alongside USDA Assistant Secretary Devon Westhill—himself a former CEO President and General Counsel.

In their official announcement, the USDA specifically credited Ladisa’s valuable training with CEO, noting she is grounded in “an abiding commitment to the principles of equal opportunity, the fair treatment of the law, and the affirmation of individual rights” as she takes on this critical leadership role.

Major Victories

We are keeping the pressure on federal agencies and major universities, holding them accountable to the Constitution:

Decades of Advocacy Validated at UCLA and Yale: A Department of Justice investigation recently determined that Yale and the UCLA School of Medicine have been illegally using race as a factor in admissions. As we detailed in our analysis of the federal investigation at UCLA, this monumental enforcement action is the direct result of the strategic foundation CEO spent 30 years building—pioneering the landmark, data-driven studies of racial preferences that dismantled the status quo and proved elite universities were operating discriminatory admissions systems.

A Historic Shift at the DOJ: The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel recently issued an opinion concluding that the EEOC’s longstanding disparate-impact guidelines violate the Constitution. We published a detailed analysis of this seismic shift for equal opportunity to break down the massive implications of this historic decision, which came in response to a formal request from EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas—who also serves as an instructor for our Civil Rights Fellowship.

Defending Colorblind Equality at SCOTUS: To ensure that individual merit remains the standard under the law, CEO recently joined forces with the Manhattan Institute to file a key SCOTUS amicus brief in Khatibi v. Lawson.

Forcing Accountability at UW-Madison: After The College Fix exposed how the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School quietly scrubbed racially exclusionary language from its prestigious Hastie Fellowship, our analysis of the win at UW-Madison detailed the ongoing fight to hold these institutions accountable. CEO General Counsel Shawna Bray provided the key legal analysis for the national media coverage, pointing out that paying lip service to equal opportunity on a website is not enough.

Driving the National Narrative

CEO’s leadership and insights continue to shape public discourse across major media platforms:

Renowned business leader and philanthropist David Rubenstein recently sat down with our Chairman for an in-depth profile, which you can watch as David Rubenstein profiles Linda Chavez on C-SPAN.

We recently sat down with conservative commentator Coleman Hughes for a deep-dive episode on his widely popular podcast—and we encourage you to listen to that conversation with Coleman Hughes on the future of immigration.

In a climate of deep cultural division, we marked our nation’s 250th anniversary by co-authoring a call to action urging a return to shared civic pride in our recent essay, Toward a New Birth of Patriotism.

We also recently announced a triumph for constitutional fidelity and the American Dream to highlight how the federal courts are steadily returning to first principles.

A Moment of Reflection

As we celebrate these victories, we also pause to honor the memory of Senator Lindsey Graham, who passed away suddenly this week. Looking back on his many years of dedicated public service, we are reminded of a memorable exchange between the Senator and CEO Chairman Linda Chavez during her testimony against the nomination of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor.

You can watch Linda’s classic exchange on C-SPAN to appreciate Senator Graham’s signature, quick-witted humor, as Linda powerfully argued for hiring and promotion based on individual merit rather than skin color. It remains a masterclass in defending constitutional principles and a reminder of the long-standing weight CEO carries in Washington.

Real Impact, Real Results

From high-stakes Supreme Court cases, to driving the national narrative, to the training of our next generation of leaders and attorneys, CEO is actively defending individual liberty, merit, and a colorblind Constitution. None of this would be possible without your support.

Thank you for standing with CEO as we keep the fires of freedom burning bright.

Rudy Gersten
Executive Director

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