Law Commons^™

Separate And Unequal: Promoting Racial Equity In Public Schools In The United States And South Africa, Paige Sferrazza

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

On January 24, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that it will hear two cases, against Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, which “rais[e] serious doubts about the future of affirmative action in higher education.” The plaintiff in both cases, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. (“SFFA”), is a non-profit organization devoted to eradicating affirmative action programs nationwide. Described as the “culmination of a years-long strategy by conservative activists,” these cases represent the first affirmative action challenges to be argued before the Court’s new conservative majority, where they “pose the gravest threats yet” to over …

Diversity's Distractions Revisited: The Case Of Latinx In Higher Education, Rachel F. Moran

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Testing The Limits: Asian Americans And The Debate Over Standardized Entrance Exams, Vinay Harpalani

South Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Race-Conscious Admissions Policies In American Institutions Of Higher Education: How Students For Fair Admissions V. Harvard Could Impact The Practice Of Affirmative Action, Christine Kiracofe

BYU Education & Law Journal

Since inception, affirmative action programs have been char-acterized as everything from institutional ‘reverse’ racism, to neces-sary plans that seek to ameliorate decades of racism. Data from the Pew Research Center indicates that a large majority of Americans support affirmative action. When asked whether “[a]ffirmative ac-tion programs designed to increase the number of black and minori-ty students on college campus are. . . good or bad,” 71% of respond-ents answered “good” in 2017.16 This is a significant increase in the percentage of Americans responding favorably to affirmative action programs. In comparison, when Americans were asked the same question in 2003, just …

Disaggregation & Diversity: A Case For Race Conscious Admissions, Connor Oniki

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Since its founding, people all over the world have looked towards

America as a land of opportunity. Immigrants viewed it as a place

for fresh starts, new beginnings, and equal chances. However, for

centuries, concrete and subtle barriers have slowed the opportunity

for progress for those who are not in the majority. Throughout America’s

beginnings, lawmakers legalized segregation and discrimination

throughout the country multiple times. The Chinese Exclusion

Act prevented Asian Americans from immigrating to the United

States to pursue opportunities. Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation

and ensured that though African Americans were no longer

enslaved, they did not …

Philadelphia Plan, Neal Devins

Neal E. Devins

No abstract provided.

Embracing Race-Conscious College Admissions Programs: How Fisher V. University Of Texas At Austin Redefines "Affirmative Action" As A Holistic Approach To Admissions That Ensures Equal, Not Preferential, Treatment, Nancy L. Zisk

Nancy L. Zisk

In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the United States Supreme Court affirmed well-established Supreme Court doctrine that race may be considered when a college or university decides whom to admit and whom to reject, as long as the consideration of race is part of a narrowly tailored holistic consideration of an applicant's many distinguishing features. The Court's latest decision heralds a new way of thinking about holistic race-conscious admissions programs. Rather than considering them as "affirmative action" plans that prefer any one applicant to the disadvantage of another, they should be viewed as the Court has described …

Racial Indirection, Yuvraj Joshi

Yuvraj Joshi

Systematic Prevention Of A Serial Problem: Sexual Harassment And Bridging Core Concepts Of Bakke In The #Metoo Era, Nancy Chi Cantalupo, William C. Kidder

Law Faculty Research Publications

No abstract provided.

Barriers To Higher Education: Underrepresented Minorities' Access To Uci, Kimberly Dennin

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Ever since the removal of Affirmative Action in California from Proposition 209, the UC system has struggled with increasing the enrollment numbers of underrepresented minorities on their campuses. In response to this, many of the UC schools are adopting different policies to help counteract the negative effects of Proposition 209. This paper examines the effects of Proposition 209 on the underrepresented minority population in the UC system, specifically focusing on the University of California, Irvine (UCI). The areas of focus for addressing the issues of Proposition 209 at UCI are outreach programs, admissions policies, and recruitment programs. This paper examines …

Fisher V. University Of Texas At Austin: Navigating The Narrows Between Grutter And Parents Involved, Kimberly A. Pacelli

Maine Law Review

Universities’ use of race as a factor in their admissions decisions has been a divisive issue both in the legal system and in political discourse. Opponents of affirmative action have challenged racial preferences in public university admissions under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Individuals who find themselves denied a coveted seat in a university class and suspect that racial preferences are to blame will often challenge their rejection as a denial of their state’s “equal protection of the laws.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit recently considered whether the University of Texas at …

A Diverse Student Body Without Student Bodies?: Online Classrooms And Affirmative Action, Ryan H. Nelson

Pepperdine Law Review

America’s public universities engage students in myriad classroom environments that range from traditional, entirely-in-person classroom environments to entirely-online, virtual classrooms, with every shade of grey in between. These varied learning environments pose a fascinating question with respect to the ways such universities use affirmative action in admissions. In Grutter v. Bollinger, the United States Supreme Court held that “student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions.” Indeed, student body diversity remains one of the few “compelling interests” that the Court has held satisfies the constitutional imperative that the “government may …

Embracing Race-Conscious College Admissions Programs: How Fisher V. University Of Texas At Austin Redefines "Affirmative Action" As A Holistic Approach To Admissions That Ensures Equal, Not Preferential, Treatment, Nancy L. Zisk

Marquette Law Review

In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the United States Supreme Court affirmed well-established Supreme Court doctrine that race may be considered when a college or university decides whom to admit and whom to reject, as long as the consideration of race is part of a narrowly tailored holistic consideration of an applicant's many distinguishing features. The Court's latest decision heralds a new way of thinking about holistic race-conscious admissions programs. Rather than considering them as "affirmative action" plans that prefer any one applicant to the disadvantage of another, they should be viewed as the Court has described …

Navigating The Unknown: Why Scotus Ought To Again Affirm That Achieving True Diversity In Higher Education Is A Compelling Interest That Satisfies Strict Scrutiny When It Rehears Fisher, Kenrick Frank Roberts

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

On June 29th, 2015, the Supreme Court agreed to once again hear oral arguments in Fisher. This decision is troubling to supporters of Affirmative Action policies because of the Court's indistinguishable motivation for hearing the case a second time. This Note argues that theCourt must continue to allow race-based considerations in higher education admissions policies. Part I takes a look at the beginnings of affirmative action and the effects of past discrimination on the educational attainment of minorities. Part II charts the case law related to affirmative action in higher education. Part III tracks how the meaning of narrowly-tailored has …

Section 5: Race, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

A Crowded Room Or The Perfect Fit? Exploring Affirmative Action Treatment In College And University Admissions For Self-Identified Lgbt Individuals, Herbert C. Brown Jr.

William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice

This Article explores affirmative action treatment for self-identified LGBT individuals in college and university admissions. This Article seeks to explain that while granting affirmative action treatment to self-identified students in the admission process is constitutional, under the current affirmative action precedent, there is a lack of sufficient justification for such an expansion. This Article will also explore the advantages and disadvantages should colleges and universities choose to implement affirmative action programs for LGBT applicants.

Section I of this Article will begin by depicting the evolution of affirmative action programs since their inception in the early 1960s. This section will also …

Courtroom To Classroom: Judicial Policymaking And Affirmative Action, Dylan Britton Saul

Political Science Honors Projects

The judicial branch, by exercising judicial review, can replace public policies with ones of their own creation. To test the hypothesis that judicial policymaking is desirable only when courts possess high capacity and necessity, I propose an original model incorporating six variables: generalism, bi-polarity, minimalism, legitimization, structural impediments, and public support. Applying the model to a comparative case study of court-sanctioned affirmative action policies in higher education and K-12 public schools, I find that a lack of structural impediments and bi-polarity limits the desirability of judicial race-based remedies in education. Courts must restrain themselves when engaging in such policymaking.

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 …

The End Of Indeterminacy In Affirmative Action, Carla D. Pratt

Valparaiso University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action And Academic Freedom: Why The Supreme Court Should Continue Deferring To Faculty Judgments About The Value Of Educational Diversity, Steve Sanders

Indiana Journal of Law and Social Equality

No abstract provided.

How Quickly We Forget: The Short And Undistinguished Career Of Affirmative Action, Robert Parrish

Robert Parrish

Diversity initiatives in higher education, also known as affirmative action are nearing their nadir. For those who have been watching the jurisprudence and the progression of events closely this should come as little surprise. These initiatives have been under attack since their very inception and now sit teetering on the brink of being declared unconstitutional as the United States Supreme Court considers Fisher v. Texas. Beginning with Regents of California v. Bakke in 1978, the Supreme Court has gradually and consistently whittled away these higher education diversity programs, leaving them currently in a vulnerable and legally precarious position. The Court’s …

Affirmative Action, Justice Kennedy, And The Virtues Of The Middle Ground, Allen K. Rostron

Faculty Works

When the Supreme Court hears arguments this fall about the constitutionality of affirmative action policies at the University of Texas, attention will be focused once again on Justice Anthony Kennedy. With the rest of the Court split between a bloc of four reliably liberal jurists and an equally solid cadre of four conservatives, the spotlight regularly falls on Kennedy, the swing voter that each side in every closely divided and ideologically charged case desperately hopes to attract. Critics condemn Kennedy for having an unprincipled, capricious, and self-aggrandizing style of decision-making. Though he is often decisive in the sense of casting …

Should Black Immigrants Be Favored Over Black Hispanics And Black Multiracials In The Admissions Processes Of Selective Higher Education Programs?, Kevin D. Brown

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Since the origin of affirmative action, selective higher education institutions' have generally lumped all blacks into a unified Black/ African/African American category. However, this practice of treating all blacks alike has now changed. The Department of Education ("DOE") issued the Final Guidance on Maintaining, Collecting, and Reporting Racial and Ethnic Data to the United States Department of Education ("Guidance") in October 2007, which had a final implementation date for the reporting school year of 2010-2011. The Guidance marked the first time that the federal government dictated the procedures that educational institutions, including selective higher education programs, must follow when collecting …

On Disguises, Tokens, And Affirmative Action Policies, Mark Strasser

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Perspective And Point Of View On Affirmative Action, Kevin D. Brown

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Associated Dangers Of "Brilliant Disguises," Color-Blind Constitutionalism, And Postracial Rhetoric, André Douglas Pond Cummings

Faculty Scholarship

Affirmative action, since its inception in 1961, has been under siege. The backlash against affirmative action began in earnest almost immediately following its origination through President John F. Kennedy’s and President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Executive Orders. Organized hostility in opposition to affirmative action crystallized early with “color-blind” theories posited and adopted, “reverse discrimination” alleged and embraced, and constitutional narrowing through adoption of white-privileged justifications. Enmity against affirmative action continues unabated today as exemplified by recent academic writings and studies purporting to prove that affirmative action positively injures African Americans and recent state-wide campaigns seeking to eradicate affirmative action through state …

Affirmative Action And Land-Grant Universities In The Millennium: When Will We Fulfill The Original Promise?, Christine L. Jones

University of the District of Columbia Law Review

No abstract provided.

After The Gold Rush?: Grutter, Sander And ‘Affirmative Action’ “On The Run…” In The Twenty-First Century, Anthony Vincent Baker

ExpressO

No abstract provided.

Protecting Race-Exclusive Scholarships From Extinction With An Alternative Compelling State Interest, Andrija Samardzich

Indiana Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Grutter At Work: A Title Vii Critique Of Constitutional Affirmative Action, Jessica Bulman-Pozen

Faculty Scholarship

This Note argues that Title VII doctrine both illuminates internal contradictions of Grutter v. Bollinger and provides a framework for reading the opinion. Grutter's diversity rationale is a broad endorsement of integration that hinges on the quantitative concept of critical mass, but the opinion's narrow-tailoring discussion instead points to a model of racial difference that champions subjective decisionmaking and threatens to jettison numerical accountability. Title VII doctrine supports a reading of Grutter that privileges a view of diversity as integration and therefore cautions against the opinion's conception of narrow tailoring. Grutter, in turn, can productively inform employment discrimination law. The …