Articles

Author: Joshua Thompson Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, Ilya Somin has an interesting post on the justificaiton(s) for race/ethnic preferences at public universities.  He notes how there are two general theories that are held out to justify such preferences: (1) compensatory justice; and (2) promotion of diversity.  He notes how th ...

Author: Ralph W. Kasarda In the interest of attaining a diverse student population, may schools consider a student's race when making student assignments?  We know from the 2003 case, Grutter v. Bollinger, that the Supreme Court says yes, at least for law schools.  In Grutter, the Court held that diversity is a compelling state inte ...

Author: Joshua Thompson In the coming weeks some of the PLF attorneys are going to blog on some books that we recommend for the summer.  While some of the books may be more appropriate for the those interested in legal issues, I hope that a lot of the books will also be appropriate for the … ...

Author: Joshua Thompson New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is drawing some heat for failing to re-appoint Justice John Wallace to New Jersey's Supreme Court.  You see, Justice Wallace is an African-American, so Governor Christie's decision is receiving criticism "because Wallace would at least diversify the bench." Of course ...

Author: Ralph W. Kasarda According to the Navy's Diversity Events Calendar, the League of United Latin American Citizens will hold its annual conference this year in New Mexico – and senior Hispanic officers "are encouraged to attend."  The Navy also encourages Hispanic officers to attend other events, such as one hosted b ...

Author: Joshua Thompson The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has set August 3 for oral argument in Fisher v. State of Texas.  Fisher deals with the University of Texas’ race-conscious admissions program.  The oral argument will be held in New Orleans, and I recently published an op-ed on the case in Louisiana.  Here’s a snippet: ...

Author: Joshua Thompson PLF recently filed a brief in Fisher v. University of Texas. There, two white female students are challenging the admissions process at the University of Texas that grants preferences to black and Hispanic students. In our brief (in which we are joined by the American Civil Rights Institute, the National Association of R ...

I stumbled upon this story while reading the Sacramento Bee this afternoon. It appears that African-American and Latino applications to the University of California system have increased (again) this past year. Even as a percentage of total applicants, African-American and Latino applications increased. In fact, the only racial group that has seen ...

After so much waiting, the Supreme Court has finally decided to take up Fisher v. University of Texas.  PLF has been involved in this case for three years now.  In this video, my beard doesn’t even have a hint of gray.  The case challenges the University of Texas’s decision to treat prospective students differently because … ...