Category Archive

Supporters of the Center for Equal Opportunity know that Thomas Perez, who has headed the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division during the Obama administration, has been a disaster.   In spite—or maybe because—of this, President Obama has decided to promote him, nominating Mr. Perez to be the new Secretary of Labor.  With some input from CEO, Heritage Action this week has posted the information below (the website is here).  Worth reading! It is not every week that the Senate confronts a cabinet nominee who does not believe in the equal application of the law and intends to micromanage your life, except …

In an recent op-ed, I posed this question:  As the federal government struggles with sequestration and governments at all levels also face the need to economize, isn’t it time to start awarding government contracts to the lowest bidder, rather than on the basis of skin color, national origin and sex? Related posts: TESTIMONY OF ROGER CLEGG, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, CENTER FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT HP Mandates Quotas Keeping skin color and sex out of government contracting Unkingly Discrimination

Here’s a speech that I think President Obama should give if the Supreme Court rules the way the Center for Equal Opportunity has urged it to in the Fisher case: My fellow Americans, I want to talk to you tonight about the decision that the Supreme Court handed down today in Abigail Fisher v. University of Texas, in which a narrow majority of the Court said that our colleges and universities can no longer consider race in making admissions decisions. My first reaction was disappointment, because my Justice Department had urged to Court to continue to allow this practice. But …

The much-anticipated National Association of Scholars report on political correctness at Bowdoin College was released last week and can be viewed on the NAS website here. You can read some of my earlier pieces on the project, the prime mover for which was Center for Equal Opportunity board member Tom Klingenstein, here and here.  And you should already have received Linda Chavez’s column on the report, here. In this post, I just want to flag the release of the report, and make one lawyerly point. Much of what universities like Bowdoin do these days is not illegal but merely foolish; …

“The Clock Ticks on Racial Preferences” is the title of a fine opinion piece by James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal last Friday on the two cases challenging racial preferences now before the Supreme Court, BAMN and Fisher. The piece ends with a couple of paragraphs speculating on what Justice Kennedy will do, and I’d like to add a couple of thoughts to that discussion. Related posts: TESTIMONY OF ROGER CLEGG, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, CENTER FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT We Need More Bills Like This 50th …

I’d like to bring you up to date on some odds and ends involving the two big Supreme Court cases in which the Center for Equal Opportunity is involved this term:  Fisher v. University of Texas (in which we challenge racial preferences in university admissions) and Shelby County v. Holder (in which we argue that Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires some states — mostly in the South — to get permission from the federal government before making any voting-related changes, is unconstitutional). *          *          * Related posts: Fisher v. University of Texas Wrap-Up – Whew! Two …

Last week, I was asked by ScotusBlog to comment on the oral argument in Shelby County v. Holder.  ScotusBlog is a high-profile website that specializes in covering the Supreme Court of the United States; the Shelby County case, in which the constitutionality of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act is challenged, was argued before the Court on February 27.  Related posts: Affirmative Action Questions for the Candidates TESTIMONY OF ROGER CLEGG, PRESIDENT AND GENERAL COUNSEL, CENTER FOR EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BEFORE THE U.S. COMMISSION ON CIVIL RIGHTS REGARDING THE PROPOSED EMPLOYMENT NON-DISCRIMINATION ACT Should the feds require U.S. ballots to …

You may recall that the Center for Equal Opportunity helped write and then joined an amicus brief in Shelby County v. Holder, successfully urging the Court to take the case, and then another brief once review had been granted.  This week, my partner in crime Joshua Thompson — of the Pacific Legal Foundation — and I posted on National Review Online an essay discussing the case.  You can read the full essay here, but I’ve excerpted some parts of it below.  Also, I appeared on a panel last week at the Heritage Foundation, where I made many of the same …

The National Association of Scholars has launched a new webpage dedicated to its study of Bowdoin College. It will feature a series of “contextualizing observations” in the weeks leading up to its publication of a full report; the first such installment is available here. The entertaining origins of this effort will be familiar to the Center for Equal Opportunity’s supporters, and can be read about here and here. Congratulations to NAS on what promises to be an important case study of political correctness.  And congratulations to CEO board member Tom Klingenstein, who has played the leading role in bringing all …

The Obama administration last week issued regulations formally adopting a “disparate impact” approach to enforcing the Fair Housing Act. This means that you can be found liable for illegally discriminating in a housing-related matter by following some policy that has a disproportionate effect, even though the policy is nondiscriminatory by its terms, in its application, and in its intent. So, for example, if a bank’s lending policy for home loans results in, say, a higher percentage of Asians being accepted than Latinos, then it can be held liable (banks have been actively opposing the regulations, unsurprisingly). Related posts: HP Mandates …