A BIPARTISAN GROUP OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS ASKED US TO DO THIS, SO WE’RE DOING IT:  “U.S. Civil Rights Commission to Launch Investigation of Campus Antisemitism.”  Usually when Members of Congress ask for a particular study, the Commission dutifully complies.  (Our working rule has been:  They’re Members of Congress, and our job is to advise Members of Congress and the President about civil rights issues.) For some reason, our Chair didn’t seem to want to do this one.  It took longer than it should have to get her to agree.

ET TU, USAA?:  Why did USAA de-bank John Eastman? (Click on link to see document. I couldn’t get it to show.)

	Gail Heriot ⁦‪@GailHeriot‬⁩ Dear ⁦‪@USAA‬⁩ —This really looks bad. What possibly could justify de-banking John Eastman? This is the kind of stuff you’d expect from banks in totalitarian countries. The men & women who form your core clientele fought to keep this the Land of the Free. Don’t let them down. pic.x.com/SJ2M1wsymJ 1/25/25, 5:34 PM

NOW THAT BIDEN IS SAFELY OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE:  As Alison Somin writes here, any and all regulations promulgated by the federal government pursuant to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 or to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 are required to have the President’s signature.  If they don’t, they are, in my view, null and void.  Congress was (uncharacteristically) wise in insisting on a Presidential signature back when those statutes were passed.   For some reason, in recent decades this requirement has been ignored.  Incoming Administration officials should take note.

DAN MORENOFF:  “Donald Trump Faces Boromir’s Test.“

IT’S INAUGURATION DAY:  Dear Trump Administration folks:  Don’t forget my Agenda for Congress.  If you want to make sure SFFA v. President & Fellows of Harvard gets enforced, you’re going to need to reduce the incentives for colleges and universities to discriminate on the basis of race.  (Oh … and before I forget:  When you’re ready, I await your call regarding what should be done at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.  You’re going to want to talk to each of the conservative members.)

ZOMBIE EQUAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT: Now that Biden thinks he has made the ERA part of the Constitution, here’s another zombie for you.  I wrote this essay in 2007 (published in 2008) after Ted Kennedy and Barbara Boxer announced a renewed effort to adopt the ERA, so it’s a little dated.  But its main point still comes through:  The last thing progressives should want is the ERA.  It will make preferential treatment for women and woman-owned businesses illegal.  “Feminist” organizations knocked themselves out to oppose Proposition 209 in 1996 and support the effort to repeal it (Proposition 16) in 2020.  If they wanted ban discrimination by sex, they should have supported 209.

By the way, the insane tv ad they did against Proposition 209 (described in the essay) still annoys me.

DANIEL PENNY IS MY HERO, HE SHOULD BE YOURS TOO:  Sometimes I just have to sound off:  I was hoping that once closing statements were over every single juror would laugh in the prosecutor’s face and insist on taking Daniel Penny out for a beer.  But I’ll take the deadlock over the manslaughter charge as a partial win.  Next comes the criminally negligent homicide charge.  I’m saying a prayer that the jurors will be deadlocked on that one too.

I feel like this is America on trial.  We’re the country that is supposed to honor individuals like Penny who take action in an emergency.  Please God, give us a million more like him.

AND THE SUN RISES IN THE EAST:  “California Fast Food Restaurants Shed Thousands of Jobs after $20 Minimum Wage Hike.”

BATHROOM WARS:  Single-sex Congressional bathrooms will remain single-sex, not single-gender.  Note that members of Congress have their very own private bathrooms, so the newly-elected transgender Representative from Delaware–Sarah McBride–will not be forced to use the men’s room.

The notion that federal laws banning sex discrimination require that transgender individuals be assigned to the bathroom that correspond to their gender (rather than their sex) has always been a non sequitur.  The logic of the arguments that are made for it would lead to unisex bathrooms, not bathrooms based on gender.

MILLIONS FOR A STUDY WITH “A SPECIFIC FOCUS ON BLACK DIASPORIC EPISTEMOLOGIES“:  The National Science Foundation is willing to throw $4 million at critical race theory in action.  This study comes from my alma mater–Northwestern University.

THIS IS WHAT YOUR TAXES FUND:  Get a load of the website of URGE.  It’s all about “unlearning racism” in science.  Yes it is funded by the National Science Foundation (as the web site proudly declares).

SENATOR TED CRUZ’S REPORT:  DEI:   Division, Extremism, Ideology:  How the Biden-Harris National Science Foundation Politicized Science.  (This report came out weeks ago, but I haven’t been able to turn to it till now). I understand that Sen. Cruz will be chairing the committee that authorizes the NSF’s budget.  Go get ’em, Senator.  Defund the Left.

The Anti-Crime Election:  This is an issue that most voters have caught on to.  (Here’s my take on crime victimization from couple of months ago.)

GOOD MORNING:  It’s Thursday, November 7, 2024, two days after the 2024 Elections.  It’s time to DEFUND THE LEFT. That should be the main task of the incoming 119th Congress.  Don’t let your Member of Congress forget it for a second:  Defund the Left, Defund the Left, Defund the Left. Root through the federal budget till you find every nickel that is being spent to fund leftist projects.  There’s a lot of it. Get rid of it.  It’s our only chance.

Oh … and if Trump Administration would like the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College to be something more than a dead letter, start by defunding and abolishing the Minority Serving Institutions programs.  They are unconstitutional.  If you have to replace them with something do that.  But stop paying colleges and universities to discriminate.

That’s my advice for the day.  I held off till Thursday, because it really did seem like there should be a day of celebration.  But not two days … my grandmother would never countenance two days of celebration for anything.

KEMI BADENOCH IS THE NEW CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER IN THE U.K.:  She is a fan of Thomas Sowell.  What more could I ask for?  Kicker:  She really did work at McDonald’s in her younger days.

GOLDEN STATE FOLLIES:  Not Taking Crime Seriously:  California’s Prop 47 Exacerbated Crime and Drug Abuse.

ARE YOU IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA?:  On Tuesday, November 12 at 5:30 p.m., JUDGE PATRICK J. BUMATAY will be delivering our annual Bowes Lecture at the University of San Diego School of Law.  This is our annual conservative speaker series—made possible by a generous donation by my dear friend Mrs. Joan E. Bowes.

Judge Bumatay will be speaking on “The Value of Dissent.”  If you’re in SoCal, I urge you to be there.  It’s free (including the reception), but you need to register.

DON’T GET COCKY:  The feeling may not last, but right now it does not seem impossible that the GOP will gain possession of  the White House and the Senate, and also retain the House of Representatives.  If so, I hope somebody on the Hill remembers my “Agenda for Congress” written two years ago.  These situations do not come around all that often (and they may to come around this time).  Still, the only way to take advantage of them is to be ready BEFORE they become established facts.

SCHOOL DISCIPLINE:  EdWeek asks, “How School Discipline Get Dragged into the Presidential Election?”  I don’t know, but please, please, please, don’t let it be about race.  We’ve seen enough of that.

WATCH THIS:  “WSJ Opinion:  ‘Get the Jew’:  The Crown Heights Riot Revisited.”  It’s easy to forget about significant events of the past.  Don’t let yourself forget.  This is one where the WSJ is helping us remember.  Among other things, the Crown Height Riot led to Rudy Giuliani’s election as mayor.

COLUMBUS’S ADVICE:  LET’S STICK IT OUT JUST A LITTLE LONGER:  When Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain on August 3, 1492, he expected the trip to the Orient would take two months.  By October 10 (this day in history) the crew of the Santa Maria was ready to mutiny, and Columbus wasn’t feeling so great about the voyage either.  But he managed to convince them to keep going a little longer.  Early on October 12, land was sighted by a seaman aboard the Pinta.

(Columbus later claimed that he personally had sighted land first, but the consensus seems to be that he was a liar motivated by the fact that a reward had been offered to the man who first sighted land.)

WHY, INDEED?:  “Why did it take four years to debunk the black baby study?”  I would add that the notion that black mothers die in childbirth at disproportional rates because doctors are racist is at least as dubious.  But nevertheless my colleagues on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights seem to believe it.  At least they say they do.