Articles

Racial preferences undermine the dream of Dr. King

January 18, 2016 | By RALPH KASARDA

On this day we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This holiday commemorates Dr. King’s remarkable struggles to combat racial inequality through nonviolence. My blog post from two years ago highlights his belief in American Personalism. Regrettably, the government’s continued use of racial preferences undermines ...

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Time to set aside government race-based set-aside contracts

October 30, 2015 | By RALPH KASARDA

PLF attorneys filed a brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit this week in Rothe Development, Inc. v. United States Department of Defense. In their brief, attorneys for PLF argue that the racial classification enacted in 1978 to set aside federal contracts under section 8(a) of the Small … ...

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Will Cincinnati award contracts based on race?

September 30, 2015 | By RALPH KASARDA

  Last year the City of Cincinnati agreed to pay a California-based company about $1 million to analyze city contracts for evidence of discrimination. The disparity study, which was actually completed in July, was finally released to the public this week. According to one news report, the study found disparities in City contracting that may & ...

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Supreme Court agrees to review Univ of Texas racial preferences – again

June 29, 2015 | By RALPH KASARDA

It has been a long road for Abigail Fisher, but she will have her day once again in the Supreme Court of the United States.  Two years ago the Court rightly ruled that tax-supported universities don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt from courts when they engage in race-based preferences and discrimination.  The issue stemming from … ...

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Racial preferences in the Big Sky State

May 12, 2015 | By RALPH KASARDA

Attorneys for PLF filed a brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Mountain West Holding Company v. Montana.  The case concerns a contractor’s challenge against Montana’s use of racial preferences on highway construction contracts from 2012-2014.  The contractor submitted the lowest bids on state contracts during that ...

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Do federal civil rights laws guarantee equal outcomes? Join me for a discussion after the Supreme Court oral argument on January 21.

January 20, 2015 | By TODD GAZIANO

Liberty Blog has several great posts, including here, here, and here, discussing the significant equal protection issues in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project. The Pacific Legal Foundation’s excellent amicus brief by my Sacramento colleagues can be found here. The short answer is that the ci ...

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Would it be cheaper to just fly every Californian to Japan?

December 29, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

I follow The Onion on Twitter.  It is a news parody site, and it is regularly hilarious.  Over the weekend it tweeted, “Ambitious High-Speed Rail Plan Will Fly Americans To Japan To Use Their Trains onion.com/1Am4dk1 #OurAnnualYear.”  The linked article talks about an “ambitious” $80 billion plan by President Obama ...

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What can Moneyball teach us about the debate over racial preferences?

October 22, 2014 | By WENCONG FA

Some things are accepted as so obvious that people rarely ask whether they are true. Take baseball for example. There used to be a time when fans and managers alike hyped up a pitcher as a “winner,” a batter as “clutch,” or a player known for making diving stops as a “great fielder.” Then, as … ...

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Is the denial of preferential treatment discrimination?

October 15, 2014 | By RALPH KASARDA

One group in the State of Washington thinks so. White female contractors are threatening to sue that state’s department of transportation if they aren’t given preferential treatment based on their race and gender. The commotion stems from Washington’s implementation of the infamous federal Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) ...