Articles

Racial preferences and health care reform

November 19, 2009 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Steven Gieseler This National Review Online post by the indispensable Roger Clegg is a nice gateway to several examinations of the racial preferences hidden in the House's just-passed health care reform bill. As Clegg notes, a majority of the members of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights objected to similar provisions in an earli ...

Articles

Lewis v. Chicago : Chicago Fire Department douses claims of discrimination

February 22, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Ralph W. Kasarda The United States Supreme Court heard oral argument today in Lewis v. City of Chicago. In this case, African-American fire department applicants sued the City of Chicago under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They claimed that a written examination was discriminatory when it resulted in Chicago’s decision ...

Articles

Akaka Bill defeated

December 28, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson     Earlier this month, I reported about the efforts of our friends from the Center for Equal Opportunity to defeat the Akaka Bill.  The Akaka Bill would have attempted to legitimize racial preferences for Hawaiians throughout the United States. However, the Cato Institute is reporting that the ...

Articles

Supreme Court will hear Texas affirmative action case

February 21, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

The U.S. Supreme Court announced this morning that it will review the case of Fisher v. University of Texas. … ...

Articles

Fisher v. University of Texas : An opportunity for equal opportunity

February 21, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

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 … ...

Articles

Eric Holder sees no end to racial preferences

March 06, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

In Grutter v. Bollinger, Justice O’Connor famously quipped that in 25 years (from 2003) “the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary.”  Eric Holder, Attorney General of the United States, disagrees: “The question is not when does it end, but when does it begin.”    The National Review Online has the ...

Articles

Minnesota Daily doesn't understand the Constitution

March 20, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

As a University of Wisconsin alum, I am the first to point out that the Gophers have lost the Battle for Paul Bunyan’s Axe 8 times in a row, or that their basketball team hasn’t had a winning record in the Big Ten since 2005.  But, my criticism of this editorial in the Minnesota Daily does not stem from … ...

Articles

Can a college president be "diverse"?

March 21, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

A thought provoking essay from, friend of PLF, John Rosenberg.  Here’s a snippet: For that matter, once a “diverse” candidate is hired, does he or she remain “diverse”? How, that is, can one person, even a college president, even be “diverse,” especially since he or she is seen as the representative of o ...

Articles

The University of Texas spends (an additional) $1 million on attorneys in Fisher

May 01, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

It has been widely reported that the University of Texas has decided to forgo representation from the Texas Attorney General’s Office in Fisher.  Instead, the University is going to spend $1 million on outside counsel.  That price tag is for one opposition brief and the oral argument.  Doesn’t one million dollars seem a bit high?  ...