Military Academies Litigation After SFFA

Center for Equal OpportunityUncategorized

Last year, the Supreme Court decided the cases of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Student for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina (SFFA). The Court held that the admissions programs of Harvard and UNC violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The decision has been interpreted broadly as outlawing race affirmative action in college and university admissions. However, in footnote 4 of the opinion, the Court indicated that its decision “does not address the issue” of race-based admissions programs at the military academies. Shortly after …

DEI Has Gone Too Far

Center for Equal OpportunityUncategorized

Related posts: Not DEI but MNO on MLK Day Newton’s Third Law of DEI? Equality and Equity: Contemporary Debates about Civil Rights in the Era of DEI Companies Are Getting Back To Business And Away From DEI

Podcast: Linda Chavez moderates discussion on the legal and historical interpretation of the term “equity.” 

Center for Equal OpportunityRacial Preferences

In this podcast episode, experts GianCarlo Canaparo and Mike Gonzalez provide a legal and historical interpretation of the term “equity.” This discussion, moderated by Linda Chavez, highlights how the definition of equity extends beyond civil rights protection and how the evolving definition of the term “equity” affects the legal realm. Related posts: The Mismatch Game Linda Chavez moderates panel on Critical Race Theory Here’s Linda Chavez on The O’Reilly Factor Unkingly Discrimination

In Loving Memory of CEO Legend Althea Nagai

Center for Equal OpportunityRacial Preferences

It is with great sadness the Center for Equal Opportunity mourns the passing of Althea Nagai, longtime CEO Senior Research Fellow, who died today after a long illness. Althea was a member of the CEO family from its inception in 1995.  Her work exposing the breadth and depth of racial preferences in college admissions shaped public opinion and not only helped lay the groundwork for nine statewide ballot initiatives to ban the government’s use of race, but also the landmark Supreme Court cases against the University of North Carolina and Harvard banning preferences in college admissions. Althea was the author …

CEO Fellowship Begins

Center for Equal OpportunityRacial Preferences

This week, CEO is hosting its third-annual Civil Rights Fellowship for aspiring lawyers with a series of activities and training in caselaw, enforcement practices, and public policy. The 2024 fellowship class includes ten law students fromsome of the best schools in the country: Ave Maria, Campbell University, George Washington University, Michigan State, University of Colorado, University of Florida, and University of Miami. The first of its kind program, spearheaded by CEO President and General Counsel Devon Westhill, is taking place here in Washington, D.C. We kicked things off with a discussion on post-Civil War constitutional amendments and major civil rights legislation, …

Life After Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard | Old Parkland Conference

Center for Equal OpportunityEducation

Now that the Supreme Court has found racial preferences in college admissions to be unconstitutional, how will elite higher education respond? Will they abandon racial preferences or work harder to conceal them? Legal experts will discuss the implications of the Students for Fair Admissions decision for admissions offices and what’s to come in the battle over affirmative action. Speakers: Rick Banks, Devon Westhill, Renu Mukherjee, and Mene Ukueberuwa Highlights from the Event | OLD PARKLAND CONFERENCE 2024 Inspired by the 1980 Fairmont Conference and building on the success of the 2022 Old Parkland Conference, the 2024 Old Parkland Conference brought together leaders …

CEO Celebrates Victories for Colorblind Equal Opportunity

Center for Equal OpportunityKeeping Up with CEO

Dear friends, We have much to celebrate this Independence Day. From the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act to the 1st anniversary of the monumental Students for Fair Admissions Supreme Court decisions. We at CEO are overjoyed at the continued wins we are notching for colorblind equal opportunity in America. Many of them, however, are not as flashy as the passage of major civil rights legislation or a Supreme Court win but can be just as important. And, for 30 years now, CEO has been a major contributor to the fight to stop identitarian division anywhere we find it. …

Affirmative Action One Year Later: A Conversation with Devon Westhill 

Center for Equal OpportunityRacial Preferences, Uncategorized

This article originally appeared on Philanthropy Round Table This month marks the first anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decisions in the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and the Students Against Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina cases. These seminal decisions ended racial preferences in college admissions processes, also known as affirmative action, after the court ruled in 2023 that the schools were violating the civil rights of certain students based on race.   Philanthropy Roundtable Adjunct Senior Fellow Patrice Onwuka spoke with Devon Westhill, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), about the ripple effect …

Peter Abernathy joins CEO as Visiting Legal Fellow

Center for Equal OpportunityKeeping Up with CEO

The Center for Equal Opportunity is excited to welcome back to the team Peter Abernathy as Visiting Legal Fellow. Peter returns to CEO after participating in CEO’s inaugural Civil Rights Fellowship in 2022. Peter is a 2024 graduate of George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School and currently serving as a law clerk to the Hon. Caroll A. Weimer of the Thirty-First Circuit Court of Virginia. Before college, Peter served for two years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Londrina, Brazil. After concluding his full-time missionary service, Peter earned dual degrees in Geospatial …