American Civil Rights Institute Blog

Oklahoma State Question 759

November 9, 2011

A few years ago, racial preferences opponents attempted to put a measure on the November 2008 ballot in Oklahoma. Opponents of racial neutrality in government challenged the validity of the collected signatures, and because the validity rate for collected signatures would have been unrealistically high, the backers of the initiative withdrew it. Earlier this year, [...]

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PLF Warns CA High-Speed Rail Against Quotas

November 9, 2011

We’re all aware of how fond California lawmakers are of introducing and passing bills that give government-mandated special favors to certain racial and ethnic minorities, despite a 15-year-old voter-approved law that bars the practice. The Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF), which raises legal challenges against government programs that violate the law barring racial preferences, issued a [...]

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Common Sense in Wisconsin

November 7, 2011

If you believe taxpayer-supported grants should be awarded to individuals without regard to race, you might be a racist. Last week, Rep. Peggy Krusick (pictured), a Democrat in the Wisconsin legislature, introduced a measure that would remove race from the taxpayer-funded college grant equation. An excerpt from PostCrescent.com: “The proposal, made around 11 p.m. Tuesday, [...]

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Linda Chavez Talks Racial Preferences on O’Reilly

November 2, 2011

The Center for Equal Opportunity’s Linda Chavez talks about the “controversial” report that revealed the extent of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s racial preferences. Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com

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Supreme Court Takes Action in Fisher v. Texas

November 2, 2011

You’ll recall that the plaintiffs in Fisher v. Texas asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear their case after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld a race-based admissions policy at the University of Texas (UT). The plaintiffs contend the school discriminated against them on the basis of race. Yesterday, the SCOTUSblog [...]

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Minority Business Up After Charlotte Drops Racial Preferences

October 31, 2011

The city of Charlotte (North Carolina) used to require contractors to set aside subcontract work for black- or female-owned business. Someone raised a legal challenge, and the city removed the race and sex elements and renamed the program Small Business Opportunities. Although the program still involves a set-aside (contractors must subcontract 12 percent of the [...]

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‘Classroom Diversity’ and Racial Preferences

October 27, 2011

Fisher v. Texas is a hot topic. Eight years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court thought it had settled the “affirmative action” matter for at least 25 years. The court’s muddled decision in Grutter v. Bollinger sent mixed signals, however, and race is used as more than a “plus” factor in college and university admissions. In [...]

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‘Mismatch’ and Racial Preferences

October 26, 2011

Ed Whelan at National Review writes about Fisher v. Texas, the “affirmative action” case pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. He cites research reported in two amicus briefs submitted by Richard Sander and Stuart Taylor Jr., and U.S. Commission on Civil Rights members Gail Heriot, Peter Kirsanow, and Todd Gaziano (emphasis in original): “It is, [...]

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Ward Connerly on Jerry Brown’s Veto

October 25, 2011

“Say what you will about California’s enigmatic governor, Edmund G. ‘Jerry’ Brown, but on major issues involving votes of the people, Brown is very reluctant to go against the will of the people, no matter what his personal views happen to be. “In 1978, during his first term as governor, Brown opposed the highly popular [...]

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