Articles

Reparations Roundup : June 2024

June 07, 2024 | By ANDREW QUINIO

Lawmakers across the country are proposing reparations to black Americans for slavery and America’s history of racial discrimination. Proposals have included direct cash payments, grants, formal apologies from the government, and government programs with race-based eligibility. There are those who believe, as Ibram X. Kendi wrote, that “ ...

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Minnesota changes discriminatory grant program following PLF lawsuit

June 06, 2024 | By ANDREW QUINIO

Five months after Minnesota farmer Lance Nistler filed a federal lawsuit with Pacific Legal Foundation’s help, Minnesota removed race- and sex-based preferences from its Down Payment Assistance Grant Program.   PLF’s participation in Lance’s case raised eyebrows among Minnesota progressives: Writing in the Minnesota Reformer, Si ...

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Strict scrutiny for women!

June 03, 2024 | By ERIN WILCOX

American women gained the right to vote on August 18, 1920. Despite some hyperbolic handwringing and predictions of doom—But who will watch the children? Their fathers??—the world did not end with the passing of the 19th Amendment. In fact, women’s suffrage was the most significant legal paradigm shift for gender equality of the 20th cent ...

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What is the soft bigotry of low expectations?

May 23, 2024 | By NICOLE W.C. YEATMAN

In September 1999, then-Governor of Texas George W. Bush gave a speech to the Latin Business Association about education. America needed to adopt the mindset that every child can learn, he said. “It does not matter if they grow up in foster care or a two-parent family. These circumstances are challenges, but they are not … ...

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70 years after Brown v. Board, a resurgence of race-conscious admissions policies in schools

May 17, 2024 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

Ask most people to name five Supreme Court decisions, and Brown v. Board of Education will make their list. Its pronouncement that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal” is so widely known and so well-respected that people of many ideological backgrounds quote it and try to claim its mantle, even when they have vastly ...

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The Dispatch : How competitive high schools get away with race-based admissions

May 09, 2024 | By ALISON SOMIN

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a majority of the Supreme Court in last summer’s Students for Fair Admissions opinions, which held that affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Constitution. While colleges can no ...

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The Commerce Clause made easy

April 30, 2024 | By JEFF JENNINGS

The federal government asserts most of its modern regulatory power over the individual ostensibly under the Commerce Clause, and therefore, it’s important for anyone who loves liberty to understand its true scope. This article looks at the clause’s background and then the two main powers that it gives the federal government. Background ...

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California occupational licensing bill picks winners and losers based on their race

April 25, 2024 | By ANDREW QUINIO

California legislators are considering a bill that gives the government the authority to choose winners and losers based solely on their race. According to the Little Hoover Commission, as of 2016, one in five Californians are required to obtain an occupational license before they are allowed to earn a living in their chosen career field. … ...

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MMA fighter Renato Moicano praises Constitution and private property at UFC 300, after PLF commercial airs

April 19, 2024 | By BRITTANY HUNTER

After winning his match during last weekend’s UFC 300 in Las Vegas, Brazilian mixed martial artist Renato Moicano delivered a rather unconventional victory speech. Moicano did not use his moment in the sun to boast of his win against his opponent Jalin Turner or reflect on the long road he traveled to become champion. Instead, … ...