ONE OF MY FAVORITE QUOTES EVER:  “There is little reason to believe that this socialism will mean the advent of the civilization of which orthodox socialists dream. It is much more likely to present fascist features. That would be a strange answer to Marx’s prayer. But history sometimes indulges in jokes of questionable taste.”  Joseph Alois Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy (1942).

DISPARATE IMPACT STRIKES AGAIN:  The ACLU thinks the law requires landlords to rent to people with a history of being evicted.  (For background on how we got into the ridiculous situation we’re in, see my article on how disparate impact makes almost everything presumptively illegal.)

MY HERO:

Some people brag about their fat paycheck, their cool car, their hot girlfriend or boyfriend, or their beautiful family. I brag that Thomas Sowell sends me things in the mail. At 93, he is still writing. May he still be writing when I’m 93. pic.twitter.com/JD7PBs95Vj

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) July 26, 2023

In case you’re jealous, it may comfort you to know that I drive a middle-aged Honda Civic.

THESE FOLKS NEVER GIVE UP:  With this letter the American Civil Rights Project and Californians for Equal Rights Foundation have registered our adamant opposition to the California Legislature’s ACA7.  If passed, ACA7 will put ANOTHER effort to repeal Proposition 209 on the ballot.  We clobbered them in 2020.  We’re quite prepared to do it again if necessary.

This time it would be disguised as a mere “exception” to 209.  But the “exception” would swallow the rule.  California voters aren’t that stupid.

“RACISM UNDERLIES DISPARITIES IN MATERNAL MORTALITY IN AMERICAS, SAYS UN”:  No, it doesn’t, says Gail.

THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ISSUE:  “Hispanic-Serving Institutions and Emerging Constitutional Issues.”  As far as I can see, the constitutional issue is pretty easy as these things go:  The program is unconstitutional; it encourages illegal discrimination in admissions; and it needs to be terminated.  The article (written by Alex Heideman, one of my former special assistants) provides some useful background.

MY NEW PIECE AT CITY JOURNAL:  “Closing the Credentials Gap:  The Affirmative Action Ruling Represents Real Progress.”

NOW THAT WE’RE IN THE POST-SFFA WORLD:  If you want to get an understanding of where the pressures to engage in race-preferential admissions come from, this article is a good start.  The task now is to start peeling those pressures away.  I’m working on it.

LARRY PURDY ON FOOTNOTE 4 OF THE SFFA DECISION:  Why should our nation’s service academies be exempt from the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision?

“PRESIDENTIAL SIGNATURE REQUIREMENTS AS A TOOL FOR ENFORCING DEMOCRATIC ACCOUNTABILITY“:  This has been a pet peeve of mine for a while.  Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 require that regulations issued pursuant to those statutes be signed by the President.  I believe those laws mean what they say.  This was a very deliberate effort by Congress to insure accountability.  Yet a number of regulations issued under those statutes have NOT been signed by the President. Now Alison Somin has written about the issue.  Good for her.

OF RACISTS AND WHITE SUPREMACISTS:  The word “racist” got used up a few years ago.  It had been used so often to apply to things that obviously weren’t racist that it lost its sting.  “White supremacist” took its place, but it’s headed in the same direction.

According to this article in the Nation, if Asian Americans stand up for their rights, they are allies of white supremacists. Shame on the Nation for publishing such garbage.https://t.co/zq1XBOcIUM

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) July 8, 2023

Oh well.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG IS CONFUSED:  She apparently said that the Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard case would “lead to no women in colleges.”  The truth is a little closer to the opposite.  These days a very large number of (non-STEM oriented) colleges and universities put a thumb on the scale against women and in favor of men, on the ground that women are already a majority on their campuses.  In some cases, it’s legal under Title IX and in other cases it’s not.  If anything, the Court’s decision could, by analogy, benefit women.  But who cares about the facts if your goal is to get people riled up?

PHILADELPHIA SHOOTING SUSPECT ISN’T TRANS, OFFICIALS SAY:  On the other hand, the neighbors told the New York Post that he’d been dressing as a woman for years.

SUMMER READING:  Now that the Supreme Court has ruled, I hereby declare my anthology to be a law & policy classic.

It’s cheap too.

THIS IS PROBABLY GOOD:  California’s effort to ban the federal government’s use of private immigration detention facilities failed.  My own experience with inspecting immigration detention facilities was that the private ones were better.  But the prison guard unions don’t like them.

CLARENCE THE GREAT:  I posted a screen shot of Justice Thomas’s citation in my brief on Facebook a day or so ago.  I got back this sweet story about Justice Thomas from a high school friend of mine who is a retired Northern Virginia police officer:

Not bad at all, having a Justice cite you. Great recognition for your work. He is the only living Justice I have met. Many years ago, Al Sharpton brought two bus loads of friends to protest at Justice Thomas’s home. I had a discussion with Mr. Sharpton about the Code of Virginia, private property rights (it was a private subdivision), impeding the flow of traffic, the prohibition on picketing private homes – and the likelihood that an out of state resident would likely not be released on a PR bond, prior to an arraignment the next day  For some reason, he and his friends decided to go home.

Justice Thomas came by the Police Station a few days later to thank everyone for keeping his family safe.  In a community where so many people are “special”, he is the only prominent person I could recall taking the time to express appreciation.

It’s a good story about Sharpton too.  Both were playing to type.

LIBERTY UNYIELDING:  “Progressive Supreme Court Court justices can’t do basic math, peddle bogus statistic about black babies survival rate.”

NOW THAT THE SFFA V. HARVARD/UNC CASE HAS BEEN WON:  Here’s what needs to be done next.

LAW PROFESSORS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN BE CITED BY JUSTICE THOMAS:

Not only did Justice Thomas cite me in his SFFA v. Harvard/UNC concurrence, he also cited two pieces written by the National Association of Scholars (on whose Board of Directors I sit). pic.twitter.com/nllwneA4cz

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) June 30, 2023

Purr.

MY FIRST THOUGHTS ON THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION:  It’s good.  But the battle’s just beginning.

COME TO SAN DIEGO!!:  The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation is having its 2nd Annual Conference on August 12th on the beautiful (but woke) USD campus.  Our keynote speaker will be Edward Blum, founder of Students For Fair Admissions.  Other speakers include Nicole Neily of Parents Defending Education, Joshua Thompson of the Pacific Legal Foundation, and yours truly.

My topic may be the California Legislature’s renewed effort to repeal Proposition 209.  Despite being massively outspent, we spanked them in 2020.  Californians voted down Proposition 16 (which would have repealed 209).  But California’s deep-blue legislature just won’t give up!  The new effort purports to be a compromise.  It presents as an “exception” to Proposition 209’s ban on preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.  Under it, only if there is RESEARCH showing that preferential treatment is a good idea can Proposition 209 be waived. But you can get “research” to show that people with … ahem … male anatomy are women.  If the wokesters needed to prove that the moon is made of green cheese, they could produce “research” that proves it.

ARACHNOPHOBIA:  I woke up at a ridiculous hour this morning so I could be ready in case the Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard/UNC cases was announced.  I have a whole list of things I need to do once the cases are decided, starting with “read the decision carefully.”  I dutifully logged on to SCOTUSblog on my iPad and the Supreme Court website on my Mac.  Then I hit nervously refresh, refresh, refresh until it was clear that there were no more opinions for today.  But when I reached for my coffee, there was a giant spider (well … a medium-sized spider) in it.  It was dead, drowned.  It was an ex-spider, a no-longer-a-threat-to-all-that-is-good-and-holy spider.  But is this a sinister omen?  A benign one?   Or just one more dead arachnid?

WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF POSSIBLE DAYS:  I’m still waiting for the Supreme Court’s decision in the Harvard/UNC cases.  I am somewhat less optimistic than I was before Allen v. Milligan.  But hope springs eternal.

THE ESSENCE OF FEMININITY:  Nothing says “I am a WOMAN” like raping and murdering a 14-year-old babysitter and a 38-year-old mother.

Pretty impressive that Owen—who raped and murder multiple women, including a 14-year-old babysitter—managed to survive 30 plus years without “medically necessary gender-affirming care.” https://t.co/P18THDXh8r

— Aaron Sibarium (@aaronsibarium) June 17, 2023

HIGHER EDUCATION HELL:  “‘Schizophrenic’ Transgender Student Terrorized Top Law School, Ranted About ‘Gavel Dildos,’ Sex With ‘Trumpies’ in His Own Law Journal.”  The Daily Wire reports:

One of the nation’s most prestigious law schools admitted a transgender student who in his application dismissed his diagnoses of mental disorders as coming from a “white bitch” psychiatrist in “Amerikkka,” then later cursed out a feminist law professor as transphobic and sent bizarre emails to the entire student body, according to documents reviewed by The Daily Wire.

Northwestern School of Law capitulated to the student, Ishani Chokshi, and even gave him his own law journal, which published his screeds likening judges’ gavels to “dildos.” And last month, a year after Chokshi graduated, a prestigious law journal published a “legal paper” by him that details his purported sexual escapades with seven men … continued.

I have it on good authority the story is true.