Diversity in Crisis? The Affirmative Action Oral Arguments

Just hours after the oral arguments on Halloween (Mon, Oct. 31st) in Students for Fair Admissions v. the University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, we asked five experts for their immediate reactions, analysis and predictions: Eleanor Brown (Penn St/Fordham Law, co-signer of Black Women Law Professors' amicus brief), Jonathan Feingold (Boston U. Law) and Vinay Harpalani (U. New Mexico Law) (co-authors of a critical legal studies brief questioning Legacy+ policies as a racial privilege), Tom Lee (Fordham Law, co-director of Fordham's Center for Asian Americans and the Law), and Kimberly West-Faulcon (Loyola Law) (expert on constitutional law and civil rights, former attorney at the NAACP). Two of our students join to ask questions: Tristan Betz and Josephine Amon. 

Jonathan Feingold (BU Law) and Vinay Harpalani (UNM Law), who filed an amicus brief on the role of Legacy-Plus as a non-race-neutral policy, and thus race-conscious admission programs are a balance:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232386/20220801142646237_220703a%20Amicus%20Brief%20for%20efiling.pdf

Black Women Professors (the brief Eleanor Brown signed):

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232433/20220801152717806_SFFA%20Amicus%20Brief%20final.pdf

 

Historians’ brief:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232463/20220801160903406_Harvard%20UNC%20Final%20PDF.pdfA.pdf

 

Constitutional Accountability Center brief:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-1199/232463/20220801160903406_Harvard%20UNC%20Final%20PDF.pdfA.pdf