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Affirmative Action

Boston University School of Law

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Full-Text Articles in Law

Judging Opportunity Lost: Assessing The Viability Of Race-Based Affirmative Action After Fisher V. University Of Texas, Austin, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Mario Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky Feb 2015

Judging Opportunity Lost: Assessing The Viability Of Race-Based Affirmative Action After Fisher V. University Of Texas, Austin, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Mario Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky

Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, Mario Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky, and Angela Onwuachi-Willig examine and analyze one recent, affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas, Austin, as a means of highlighting why the anti-subordination or equal opportunity approach, as opposed to the anti-classification approach, is the correct approach for analyzing equal protection cases. In so doing, these authors highlight several opportunities that the U.S. Supreme Court missed to acknowledge and explicate the way in which race, racism, and racial privilege operate in society and thus advance the anti-subordination approach to equal protection. In the end, the authors suggest that, with regard to …


Class, Classes, And Classic Race Baiting: What’S In A Definition?, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Amber Fricke Jan 2011

Class, Classes, And Classic Race Baiting: What’S In A Definition?, Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Amber Fricke

Faculty Scholarship

Overall, in this Article, we briefly lay out each of our challenges to Sander's arguments in Class in American Legal Education. In Part I, we first address the very problems that Sander's article highlights about the difficulties of defining class and SES, problems that may make classbased affirmative action programs less feasible and effective than Sander suggests. In so doing, we identify what we consider to be defects in Sander's class/SES groupings. We also highlight the complexities around class and race that already exist within law student populations, answering in part the important questions about to whom black law students …


Using The Master’S “Tool” To Dismantle His House: Why Justice Clarence Thomas Makes The Case For Affirmative Action, Angela Onwuachi-Willig Jan 2005

Using The Master’S “Tool” To Dismantle His House: Why Justice Clarence Thomas Makes The Case For Affirmative Action, Angela Onwuachi-Willig

Faculty Scholarship

Justice Clarence Thomas, the second black man to sit on the Supreme Court, is famous, or rather infamous, for his opposition to affirmative action. His strongest critics condemn him for attacking the very preferences that helped him reach the Supreme Court. None, however, have considered how Thomas's life itself may be used as a justification for affirmative action. In what ways can the master's "tool" be used to dismantle his house? This Article analyzes Justice Thomas's appointment to the Supreme Court and contends that his nomination to and performance on the Court ironically make the case for forward-looking affirmative action. …


Cry Me A River: The Limits Of 'A Systemic Analysis Of Affirmative Action In American Law Schools', Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Kevin Johnson Jan 2005

Cry Me A River: The Limits Of 'A Systemic Analysis Of Affirmative Action In American Law Schools', Angela Onwuachi-Willig, Kevin Johnson

Faculty Scholarship

This article is a response to Richard H. Sander's article, A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools, which recently appeared in the Stanford Law Review. In his article, Professor Sander argues that affirmative action in law schools harms, rather than helps, African American law students by setting up African American students, who are out-matched by their white peers in terms of undergraduate grade point average and LSAT scores, for failure. Specifically, Professor Sander contends that because affirmative action enables African Americans to attend law schools for which they are unqualified, they are more likely to perform poorly …