E Pluribus Unum Revisited

Roger CleggUncategorized

“Charlottesville” was one year ago.  That is, this time last August the “Unite the Right” march took place there (featuring Nazis and other white-power advocates), along with counterprotests, and finally a death when one of the counterprotestors was deliberately hit by a car.   The anniversary has been much in the news, and so I happened to re-read what I sent to Center for Equal Opportunity supporters a year ago, and thought it has stood up pretty well.  So I’m sending it around again.  Note that the Harvard subplot remains in the news, and that CEO is very much involved in …

A Brief, a Letter, and a Comment

Roger CleggUncategorized

The brief:  A few weeks ago I wrote about the Center for Equal Opportunity’s amicus brief in Hand v. Scott; see this link.  The basic claim there is that it the State of Florida’s system of restoring the right to vote to felons on a case-by-case basis is too “discretionary” and not mechanical enough; as we pointed out, however, it’s hard to see how it can be mechanically determined if a felon has turned over a new leaf, and besides this an odd argument from the side of the aisle that opposes, for example, sentencing guidelines because they do not …

Good News: Trump Rescinds Obama’s “Affirmative Action” Guidance

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

On July 3, the Trump administration announced that it was rescinding Obama-era guidance on the use of race and ethnicity in student admissions (higher education) and assignments (K–12). This is good news. As I explained on National Review Online as the Obama statements were issued — here and here and here, for example — they misread the law and were bad policy as well. It’s not that complicated: As a policy matter, skin color and national origin should not play a role in deciding where a student can go to school. The costs of such discrimination overwhelm any claim of …

Google and Mismatch

Roger CleggEmployment

The Washington Post ran an article recently on Google and its demographics. Most of it is devoted to discussing the company’s “diversity” efforts and its painfully slow progress in achieving the politically correct racial, ethnic, and gender balance it wants. Too many white and Asian men, not enough of everyone else. But fear not: The suits — does Google have “suits”? — acknowledge “we need to do more to achieve our desired diversity and inclusion outcomes,” so department heads will be “tasked with meeting intermediate milestones,” and the company has set as one of its “major goals” to “reach or …

Too Many Asian Americans: Affirmative Discrimination in Elite College Admissions. (Harvard, MIT, Caltech)

Roger CleggDocuments, Education

Last Friday, Students for Fair Admissions filed its motion for summary judgment against Harvard for its admissions discrimination against Asian-American applicants on the basis of race. You can read the motion and the various supporting documents here. Edward Blum, president of the organization, said, “Today’s court filing exposes the startling magnitude of Harvard’s discrimination against Asian-American applicants,” adding that it “definitively proves that Harvard engages in racial balancing, uses race as far more than a ‘plus’ factor, and has no interest in exploring race-neutral alternatives.” He also said, “We believe that the rest of the evidence will be released in the next …

Our Amicus Brief in a Felon Voting Case

Roger CleggVoting Rights

Late last week the Center for Equal Opportunity filed an appellate amicus brief supporting the state of Florida in a case that challenges the state’s procedure for reenfranchising felons only on a case-by-case basis after they have appeared before a state board.   Below are a few excerpts from last week’s brief, which is available below for download.  By the way, CEO has filed dozens of amicus briefs on our issues — opposing racial preferences, criticizing the “disparate impact” approach to civil-rights enforcement, and so forth — as the brief last week explains.  INTEREST OF AMICUS CURIAE The Center for Equal …

A Half-Dozen Push-Backs

Roger CleggUncategorized

One of my articles that I link to most is “A Half-Dozen Push-Backs for Faculty Hiring Committee Meetings,” which the National Association of Scholars kindly published on its website eight years ago.  It’s useful whenever I’m responding to a suggestion that this or that faculty should increase its “diversity” — and those suggestions appear practically every day on higher-education websites.  Many of the points it makes, alas, apply as well to Corporate America these days and its “celebration of diversity” (I testified specifically against those practices before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which you can read here and here). …

Setting the Record Straight

Roger CleggUncategorized

A never-ending project of the Center for Equal Opportunity is setting the record straight when the media get it wrong on a civil-rights issue — or, less frequently, applauding them when they get it right.  Below are some examples from this year of each (the first was published in the Washington Post, the next on the following day in the Wall Street Journal, etc.). Washington Post: The April 7 editorial “Disparate school discipline, in black and white” wrongly urged the Education Department to leave in place an Obama administration “Dear Colleague” letter that coerces schools into imposing racial quotas when …

George Will Nods (Feloniously)

Roger CleggVoting Rights

George Will asks, “What compelling government interest is served by felon disenfranchisement?” Here’s the answer: If you’re not willing to follow the law, then you should not have a role in making the law for everyone else, which is what you do when you vote — either directly (in the case of a referendum or ballot initiative) or indirectly (by choosing lawmakers and law enforcers). Mr. Will says that it “is not a legitimate government objective for elected officials” to “fine-tune the quality of the electorate.” Really? That would mean that not only criminals but also children, non-citizens, and the …

The Parable of the Lifeguard

Roger CleggRacial Preferences

There’s an interesting new paper discussed here by Mark Perry at the American Enterprise Institute about an international phenomenon called the “educational-gender-equality paradox — the greater the degree of gender equality among 67 countries studied . . . the lower the female share of STEM college graduates.”  As The Atlantic puts it, “In countries that empower women, they are less likely to choose math and science professions.” It’s about choice, then, not discrimination. I don’t expect this to diminish the incessant politically correct demands for no gender imbalances in the STEM professions (or anywhere else, for that matter), and that if we have to …