Articles

Author: Joshua Thompson Last week, PLF won an important victory for equality under the law in the case of Smith v. California Health and Human Services Agency.  The case challenged Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 128330(g) & 128345 under Article I, section 31(a) of the California Constitution (often referred to as Proposition 209), whi ...

Author: Joshua Thompson PLF filed a lawsuit today against a number of California agencies and officials including Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Brown.  The lawsuit alleges that the recently enacted Assembly Bill 21 (AB 21), grants preferences on the basis of race and sex in public contracting.  You can read PLF' ...

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: Joshua Thompson That's the title of a new article in California Lawyer, a magazine sent to me for free as an active member of the California bar.  But this is not just an article in a magazine.  California lawyers who read the article, can answer a few questions about it, send in a check for … ...

Author: Joshua Thompson Discrimination.  Period.  With respect to race, it means treating certain people differently because they have a certain favored or disfavored skin color. I am often dismayed by opponents of racial preferences (opponents of discrimination), or proponents of equality under the law, when they use the the term & ...

Author: Joshua Thompson Mindingthecampus has an excellent article on BAMN's (a radical group that supports racial preferences By Any Means Necessary) ridiculous lawsuit against Proposition 209. The article points out that the lawsuit is nothing more than attempt to smear Ward Connerly, a man who has made it his mission to cham ...

Today we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.  We are celebrating a man who gave his life to liberty and equality under the law.  For someone born in 1979, in northern Wisconsin, it is hard for me to imagine that less than 50 years ago, Dr. King was leading a march on Washington to end segregationist … ...

At PLF, we support equality under the law.  Indeed, we have a whole project area dedicated to it.  This should NOT be confused with ecomonic equality.  Our friends at FEE, the Foundation for Economic Education, put together this nice video explaining why economic equality is not desirable. … ...

Individuals should not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  Most children learn that famous line from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at an early age.  Unfortunately, children in Florida public schools are going to learn a very different lesson by 2018. … ...