“Let the Sunshine In” is not only the title of a song my fellow baby boomers will recall; it’s also the title of a short piece I did recently for Minding the Campus.
In it, I urge the new Congress to pass a bill that requires federally-funded universities (a) to report whether they use racial preferences in admissions, and (b) if so, how those preferences comport with the Supreme Court’s constraints on them. Let those who support racial preferences explain why they should be kept secret from taxpayers and why the federal government needn’t know if their use is consistent with federal law.
As long as university officials take race and ethnicity into account in admissions decisions, a bill requiring publication of the use of such preferences is necessary. Such a bill would require universities that receive federal funding to report annually in detail on whether and how race, color, and national origin factor into the student admissions process.
Of course, the Supreme Court has, alas, upheld the use of race to achieve the “educational benefits of a more diverse student body” as constitutionally permissible, at least for now, subject to numerous restrictions. But even if some insist that universities should continue to practice racial discrimination in admissions, there’s no justification for it being done secretly and without taking pains to satisfy the Supreme Court’s requirements.
Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who will likely chair the relevant Senate committee and is an outspoken critic of racial preferences, ought to be supportive. The same is true of his House counterpart, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC).
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights endorsed this approach, including “sunshine” legislation, as a recommendation to the President and Congress in a 2006 report. Likewise, Rep. Steve King (R–IA) introduced similar legislation that would require universities that receive federal financial assistance to disclose data to the U.S. Department of Education on how race, color, and national origin factor into admissions decisions. As Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis once said, sunshine is “the best of disinfectants.”
You can find a draft of the bill (the “Racial and Ethnic Preferences Disclosure Act of 2014″) and more discussion here.
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And speaking of Sen. Alexander: He has been highly critical over the past week or two of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and especially its dubious lawsuits during the Obama administration and lack of transparency. The Washington Times last week had an article that focuses, in particular, on a report that Sen. Alexander has released. The Senator has also put out a couple of press releases.
Good for him!
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The superintendent of the Minneapolis public school system has announced that “black and brown” students, but not white students, will automatically have any proposed suspension reviewed. No word on red, yellow, or other colors. She wants a “25 percent reduction in disproportionality by the end of this school year; 50 percent by 2016; 75 percent by 2017; and 100 percent by 2018.” But no quotas, of course.
This is in response to pressure from the Obama administration for school districts to get their numbers right, racial-disparity-wise. This superintendent’s proposal is ridiculous, of course, but should come as no surprise, as it is the predictable (and predicted by the Center for Equal Opportunity) result of the administration’s “guidelines” in this area.
This sort of racial discrimination is blatantly illegal. What’s more, the children who will be hurt the most when badly behaving students are not disciplined will be their classmates — who are themselves likely to be “black or brown.”
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Judge Richard J. Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has struck downthe Obama administration’s “disparate impact” regulations for the Fair Housing Act, ruling that they are inconsistent with that statute.
The issue whether disparate impact causes of action may be brought under the Fair Housing Act is also before the Supreme Court this term. And so, as Judge Leon concludes, “Fortunately for us all . . . the Supreme Court is now perfectly positioned . . . to finally address this issue in the not-too-distant future.”
This is an issue with which the Center for Equal Opportunity has been heavily involved over the years, by the way. In the case now before the Supreme Court, for example, we joined and helped write two amicus briefs.
