Terry Eastland, R.I.P.

Roger CleggKeeping Up with CEO

I met Terry Eastland soon after we had both joined the Justice Department during the Reagan administration in the early 1980s, so we were friends for almost exactly four decades. He and I were fellow Texans and appreciated not only Ronald Reagan but Southern cuisine together; to be sure, Terry’s expertise on barbecue in particular was deeper than mine, no doubt helped by the fact that his wife, Jill, was from North Carolina. Terry’s southern roots were manifest in other ways: He was devoted to the Atlanta Braves, and sold encyclopedias and/or Bibles door to door — I forget which, …

Devon Westhill and Jin Hee Lee on Supreme Court’s Recent Decisions on Affirmative Action

CEO StaffEducation

Devon Westhill and Jin Hee Lee talked about the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. This is part of a week long series looking at key 2022-23 Supreme Court cases. Related posts: Opening Statement of Devon Westhill House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Update on the Struggle against Universities’ Affirmative Discrimination Keeping up with CEO Good Briefs in the Harvard Case

CEO Civil Rights Fellowship Begins

Rudy GerstenAbout CEOUSA

This week, CEO is hosting its second-annual Civil Rights Fellowship for aspiring lawyers with a series of activities and training in caselaw, enforcement practices, and public policy. The 2023 fellowship class includes ten law students from some of the best schools in the country: American University, Arizona State, Brigham Young University, George Mason, Georgia State, Southern University, Stetson, University of Miami, and the University of Wisconsin. 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 …

Harvard Student Experience Case

Anthony PericoloEducation

Black patients will die struggling to find doctors, income inequality will worsen, and perhaps, the global temperature will rise from the steaming ears of affirmative action proponents. So long as people have vivid imaginations, society will continue to impose the soft bigotry of low expectations.  Reality is clear. No college applicant today was enslaved in America because of his race or lived under Jim Crow. Discrimination and racism are much less prevalent— and much more certain to be punished severely— than at affirmative action’s inception. Now was the right time to curtail the use of race in college admissions.  But …

High Court’s Affirmative Action Ruling Will Benefit All Students

Devon WesthillEducation

Reproduced with permission. Published July 10, 2023. Copyright 2023 Bloomberg Industry Group 800-372-1033. For further use please visit https://www.bloombergindustry.com/copyright-and-usage-guidelines-copyright The US Supreme Court has ruled that Harvard University and University of North Carolina unconstitutionally discriminated against some of its applicants and in favor of others based on race. I was very likely one of the unwitting applicants caught up in this decades-long racial spoils system at UNC. And despite the Supreme Court’s historic and long overdue ruling, the bell can’t be unrung for those like me. As a civil rights lawyer, and Black Southerner interested in our grand American experiment, …

After Affirmative Action Rulings, Americans Are Talking

Devon WesthillEducation

This op-ed originally appeared in RealClearEducation In the words of President Joe Biden, the Supreme Court has “effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions.” Affirmative action is the practice, as the Court described, that took race into account when evaluating applicants, benefiting members of certain races at the expense of others. Some have praised the Court’s decision and some have denounced it, but everyone, it seems, has an opinion. Ruth Wisse, for example, explains in an op-ed that Harvard, where she is professor emerita, is now set to have a faculty discussion on affirmative action for the first time in a quarter-century. Wisse asserts …

Giving Ventures Podcast: A New Era of Equal Opportunity

Center for Equal OpportunityEducation

On the latest episode of Giving Ventures, host and DonorsTrust Vice President Peter Lipsett talks with three policy experts working to expand diversity of thought and equal opportunity for all. Those experts are Edward Blum, founder of Students for Fair Admissions; Devon Westhill, president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity; and Kenny Xu, president and primary spokesperson for Color Us United. Race, Ethnicity ‘Shouldn’t Be a Factor’ in College Admissions The Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard recently ruled accepting and rejecting students based on the color of their skin is unconstitutional. The 6-3 …

She’s Not a Biologist, Just a Simple Supreme Court Justice

Devon WesthillEducation

This op-ed originally appeared in Townhall.com In her dissent from the ruling outlawing affirmative action in college admissions, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made a blunder. She parroted a debunked claim that the chance of survival of a high-risk black newborn nearly doubles if under the care of a black physician. I suppose we shouldn’t hold that against her since she gave us fair warning that she’s not a biologist. No, she’s just a simple Supreme Court Justice after all.  Conservative commentators are raking Jackson over the coals for the error. This is understandable when, as lawyer Ted Frank suggests, “[a] …

Storming the Beach Houses

Devon WesthillEducation

This article was first published on Law.com Almost immediately, selective colleges around the country responded to the Supreme Court’s  affirmative action ruling with expected disdain. But if they don’t comply, they could be in for a world  of hurt.  The president of Harvard and 17 other senior university officials signed a letter admitting that “for almost a decade, Harvard has vigorously defended an admissions system” that the Supreme Court explained took race into consideration at nearly every stage of the admissions process. Harvard explained it is committed to preserving what it calls its “essential values,” such as racial diversity. In …

Devon Westhill discusses Affirmative Action decision on Newsmax Wake Up America Weekend

Center for Equal OpportunityEducation

Related posts: Devon Westhill discusses Supreme Court cases on Newsmax Sunday Agenda Devon Westhill discusses SCOTUS cases on Fox News Devon Westhill Explains Why Affirmative Action Is BAD For Black People Opening Statement of Devon Westhill House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties