Articles

Caltrans is violating both Proposition 209 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Its quota program also raises costs and squanders tax money, because bureaucrats award contracts based on race or sex, instead of awarding contracts to the lowest responsible bidder. … ...

PLF lauds Ricci ruling, which can help PLF’s current lawsuits against San Francisco and Caltrans public-works contracting quotas The Supreme Court ruled Monday that New Haven, CT. violated federal civil rights law when it scrapped the results of a firefighters promotional exam because the top scorers did not meet the city’s preferred ra ...

Author: Ralph W. Kasarda Would the government be correct in arguing that a public contracting scheme that discriminates and grants preferences on the basis of race is not subject to strict scrutiny, if the program discriminates only a little bit? I recently participated in oral argument before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in PLF& ...

Author: Joshua Thompson The Supreme Court handed down its decision today in Lewis v. City of Chicago. The issue before the Court concerned the statute of limitations for disparate impact claims. Specifically, at what point did the statute begin to run — when Chicago announced the results of its test, or did the statute run anew each time ...

Author: Joshua Thompson Having had a day to reflect on the Supreme Court’s decision in Lewis, my opinion hasn’t changed much.  The most disappointing aspect of the case remains the Court’s silence on the constitutionality of the disparate impact provisions of Title VII.  Less than a year since the Court appeared on the precipice ...

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: ...

In a disappointing 2-1 decision, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals today held that Article I, Section 26 of the Michigan Constitution is unconstitutional. … ...

The Pacific Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief this week in the U.S. Supreme Court asking it to review Hawaii’s racially discriminatory tax laws in a case called Corboy v. Louie. … ...

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 ...