Law Commons^™

Unmuting The Volume: Fisher, Affirmative Action Jurisprudence, And The Legacy Of Racial Silence, Mae Kuykendall, Charles Adside Iii

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

As typified by its recent decisions in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin and Shelby County v. Holder, the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence concerning race has long imposed strict judicial oversight over any use of race for the formulation of public policy. This top-down approach has invited various undesirable outcomes, the most pernicious of which are the endorsement of silence on the subject of race and the delegitimizing of most public deliberations about race by non-Court actors. Consequently, speech within universities and other learning environments regarding race has become a psychologically challenging risk for both students and faculty, who justifiably …

How The Diversity Rationale Lays The Groundwork For New Discrimination: Examining The Trajectory Of Equal Protection Doctrine, Michael A. Helfand

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Article advocates differentiating between two distinct categories of equal protection cases. The first-what I have termed indicator cases-are instances where courts consider whether there are sufficient factual indications to demonstrate the existence of aprimafacie equal protection violation. The second-violation casesare instances where courts consider, having already determined the existence of an equal protection violation, whether there is a good enough justification for a prima facie equal protection violation. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has not differentiated between these two different types of cases. This has led to a string of decisions where the Supreme Court has erroneously looked for justifications …

The Role Of Suspicion In Federal Equal Protection, Paul E. Mcgreal

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Recently, Professor Jed Rubenfeld wrote an essay arguing that the Supreme Court's strict scrutiny test for equal protection works best to "smoke out" the purpose of laws to determine whether they were enacted because of racial bias or preference. Professor Rubenfeld criticized the Court's most recent affirmative action decision in Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena for departing from this "smoking out" approach.

In this Essay, Professor McGreal explores how this "smoking out" process is applied in federal equal protection cases. Counter to Professor Rubenfeld's view, he argues that the Supreme Court did use a "smoking out" approach in Adarand. His …

Affirmative Action Implications For Colleges And Universities Beyond The Scholarship And Student Admissions Areas, Ellen R. Dassance

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In Podberesky v. Kirwan, the Fourth Circuit held that a University of Maryland scholarship designated for African-American students violated the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. In so holding, the court contributed to the recent tradition of dismantling affirmative action programs in higher education. This Note explores the implications of Podberesky for other university settings, particularly faculty hiring and endowment programs. The first part of the Note's analysis concentrates on ways in which the Podberesky rationale may -be extended to university ,programs other than scholarships and student admissions. The Fourth Circuit's employment of a narrow set of factors in reviewing the scholarship …

Bakke To The Wall: The Crisis Of Bakkean Diversity, Gabriel J. Chin

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

In the years since the United States Supreme Court's affirmative action holding in Board of Regents v. Bakke, many educational institutions have struggled to apply Bakke's doctrine to their admissions policymaking. Professor Chin asserts that Bakke is incoherent because it does not explain whether the diversity it tries to foster is cultural or racial. Furthermore, he argues that neither a racial nor a cultural basis works under the Bakke scheme, leading to the difficulties schools confront in framing an affirmative action program.

Focusing on law school admissions policies, Professor Chin argues that because of Bakke's weakness as law, it is …