JOHN ROSENBERG: “Equity”?

As Rosenberg points out, Lani Guinier (Bill Clinton’s ill-fated nominee to head DOJ’s Civil Rights Division) was a reasonably respectable academic.  Like many academics, she had succumbed to the desire to say something completely novel.  That’s how you get ahead in academia.  The problem with novel ideas, however, especially in overcrowded fields like law, is that they are usually novel only because they are silly ideas.  So it was with Guinier’s cumulative voting idea.  It was silly and entirely unsuited to the real world.  On the other hand, I had a conversation with Guinier years ago and found her to be quite insightful on some of the issues facing legal education.

Biden’s nomination of Kristen Clarke for the Civil Rights Division is a different thing.  She is literally a racist.

Related (From Ed): ‘Neo-Racism’ in the Justice Department. “Will Clarke enforce civil rights law, or does she share the ideological commitments of what John McWhorter has called neo-racism, which rejects color-blindness in favor of destructive racialism? Expressing regret for one’s youthful radicalism is expected for a nominee facing a potentially tough Senate confirmation process. But what Ms. Clarke has shown with her behavior as a lawyer and an activist is that she is an untrustworthy champion of American civil rights.”