Blacks, Hispanics, Asians oppose race preferences in college admissions

Center for Equal OpportunityDocuments, Education

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:Contact: Rudy GerstenWednesday April 6, 2022(703) 442-0066 (Falls Church, VA) Today, the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) released a new report on attitudes towards racial preferences in college admissions. Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark decision in University of California Regents v. Bakke (1978), the use of race as a factor in college admissions has roiled public opinion. Dr. Althea Nagai, Senior Research Fellow at CEO, examines data from a recent Pew Research Center survey on racial and ethnic issues that shows considerable discomfort with using race to determine who should be admitted to college. Overwhelmingly, Americans of …

Opening Statement of Devon Westhill House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties

Center for Equal OpportunityEducation

Opening Statement of Devon WesthillPresident and General CounselCenter for Equal Opportunity House Committee on the JudiciarySubcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Hearing of March 1, 2022 – Discrimination and the Civil Rights of the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian American Communities Chair Cohen, Ranking Member Johnson, and distinguished Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to provide my testimony on “Discrimination and the Civil Rights of the Muslim, Arab, and South Asian American Communities.” My name is Devon Westhill and I am the president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. CEO is …

Litigation Update: Investigating Title VI and Title IX Complaints

Center for Equal OpportunityRacial Preferences

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 supplemented Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include, in addition to barring discrimination on the ground of race, color, or national origin, sex as a protected class in federally funded education programs or activities. The purpose of enacting Title IX was to ensure that everyone, regardless of sex, would enjoy a discrimination-free educational experience. In the years since their enactment, observers have accused colleges and universities of violating Titles VI and IX in various ways. Many Title IX concerns have involved single-sex, female-only programs, scholarships, awards, fellowships, camps, …

Justices have two chances to end colleges’ racial discrimination

Devon WesthillEducation

This Op-Ed Originally appeared on the Washington Examiner The Supreme Court has before it two ideal vehicles finally to end racial preferences in college admissions. For the sake of socially and economically disadvantaged minorities, the court should courageously end the practice known as affirmative action. One case challenges Harvard’s use of race in admissions decisions. Although a private institution, Harvard receives federal funding and, therefore, is prohibited by civil rights law from discriminating on the basis of race. The other case challenges the University of North Carolina’s use of race in admissions as prohibited by civil rights law and the …

CEO joins Pacific Legal Foundation to file Supreme Court amicus brief

Devon WesthillEducation

Dear friends and supporters, I am pleased to report to you that CEO joined a Supreme Court amicus brief filed yesterday by our friends at the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). The brief supports petitioners in the case of Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. University of North Carolina in their challenge to the university’s use of racial preferences in admissions. The brief builds on the arguments made in a separate brief submitted by PLF, and joined by CEO, in the racial preferences case of SFFA v. Harvard. Our hope is that the Supreme Court will agree to hear these cases together and ultimately, …

What’s the EEOC So Afraid Of?

Center for Equal OpportunityRacial Preferences

NCLA’s Executive Director and General Counsel, Mark Chenoweth, chats with Devon Westhill, President and General Counsel at Center for Equal Opportunity. Mr. Westhill was recently invited to testify before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on the topic of “Civil Rights Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic.” As the former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights for the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Mr. Westhill was eminently qualified to speak on the most important civil rights issue facing the EEOC: discrimination by employers on the basis of race or sex. Mr. Westhill sent a courtesy copy of …

Why Did California’s Prop 16 Fail? A County-by-County Assessment

Althea NagaiEducation

By a margin of 57% to 43%, California voters in 2020 rejected Proposition 16, which would have allowed the state and local governments to use race and gender as factors in public college admissions, government jobs, and state and local contracting. This essay, based on two research papers for the Center for Equal Opportunity, shows how widespread the rejection was. Background Back in 1996, voters passed Prop 209, which prohibited the use of race, ethnicity, and gender in government jobs, government contracts, and public higher education. Back then, whites were the majority, and Prop 209 won with 55% of the vote. The prohibition was …

Pervasive Preferences 2.0

Althea NagaiDocuments, Education

Years ago, Robert Lerner and I produced many studies of racial and ethnic preferences in public higher education for the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO). In 2001, we summarized these individual statistical reports in “Pervasive Preferences.” This report, “Pervasive Preferences 2.0,” is a statistical compilation of the undergraduate and law school reports that I’ve done since Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). Part I covers preferences in undergraduate admissions. Part II summarizes the findings of preferences in law school admissions. Related posts: Good Briefs in the Harvard Case Politicized external review panels as unguided “diversity” missiles: California university administrators remain ultra-slow learners …

Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions

Althea NagaiDocuments, Racial Preferences

Read now [PDF]: Campus Diversity and Student Discontent: The Costs of Race and Ethnic Preferences in College Admissions The Supreme Court has declared that campus diversity creates numerous education benefits and that race could be used as a factor in pursuit of diversity. As a result, many colleges and universities pass over white and Asian American applicants with better academic preparation, favoring blacks and (to a lesser extent) Hispanics. Research shows however that racial preference policies create a mismatch of academic qualifications between minorities receiving preferences and the rest of their entering class, and the academic disparities continue throughout college. Especially in the …

CEO Condemns Racial Preferences in Oregon Covid-19 Vaccine Access

Linda ChavezRacial Preferences

(Falls Church, VA) – The Center for Equal Opportunity denounces a recommendation by the vaccine advisory committee (committee) of the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to allow some residents to skip others in line for the COVID-19 vaccine, based solely on the color of their skin. This preferential treatment based on race would be both unconstitutional and simply odious. On January 14th, the OHA committee recommended prioritizing COVID-19 vaccines for: “Historically underserved communities of color (especially Black/African American/African Immigrant, Hispanic/Latino/a/x and Pacific Islanders) and Indigenous, Tribal and urban based American Indian/Alaska Natives. In short, the people who experience the impacts of …