THOMAS SOWELL:  I was discussing Thomas Sowell with my gentleman friend this afternoon.  I was feeling a little sad to think that Sowell is almost 93 years old now and won’t be turning out any more books.  But I was wrong!   I found this–Social Justice Fallacies–a few minutes ago.  The release is scheduled for September 5, 2023.  Keep ’em coming, Dr. Sowell.

KATHERINE KERSTEN:  “Legislature is planning an ‘antiracist’ revolution in Minnesota schools.”

THE PUBLIC SEEMS TO BE GETTING TIRED OF THIS NONSENSE:  “King’s College London Rejects Research on Trans Athletes for Calling Men ‘Males.’“

GEORGE LEEF:  Stop fretting about feelings of students who say they’ve been “harmed” by free speech.

HILARIOUS POLLING RESULTS:  Grinnell College has discovered that a majority of Americans “oppose a ban on gender-affirming care for those under 18.”  Ha!  If you asked them whether “doctors should be able to chop boys’ penises off and then shoot them up with female hormones,” I daresay you’d get a different answer.   (Polling on race-preferential admissions is similar.  If you dress it up with euphemisms, you can sometimes eke out a favorable result.  But the clearer you make the issue, the more overwhelming the opposition becomes.)

HE’S BEEN ASKED TO RECONSIDER IN VIEW OF THE VIOLENCE AGAINST RILEY GAINES:  Federal Judge Alan B. Johnson has denied the ability to sue anonymously to the seven sorority women suing Kappa Kappa Gamma for inducting a transgender woman into its Wyoming chapter.  They allege that their new “sorority sister” has been ogling them, sometimes with … uh … his male body part at attention.  They have until April 20th to reveal their true names or have their cases dismissed.

POST-COVID SCHOOL DISCIPLINE PROBLEMS:  Some states are adopting reforms that will give teachers and principals the authority to suspend disruptive students.  That’s good news.  School discipline is an area that had been too long left to progressives.  They made a giant mess of it.

TROUBLE CAN BE A GOOD THING: “Biden’s nominee for Secretary of Labor is in trouble.”

SEGREGATION IN THE 21st CENTURY:  For days, Syracuse University students have been conducting a sit-in, demanding, among other things, that “students of color” be permitted to select same-race roommate.  According to the article in Campus Reform, Chancellor Kent Syverud “responded, saying he spoke with students and learned that they had ‘good reason to fear’ roommates who ‘harbor views of racism.’ He stopped short of agreeing to the demand, however, saying that he is having housing experts look into it.”

GOOD … BUT:  It shows what a messed up world we’re in that this is considered reason for optimism:  “Cornell rejects student government resolution for mandating trigger warnings.”

NOT A HAPPY STORY:  “The New Elite:  The Rise of the Progressive Aristocracy.”

THIS WEEK IN WHITE HOUSE NEWS:  Joe Biden has declared this “Black Maternal Health Week.”  If you haven’t seen it already, you might want to take a look at my dissent in the Commission on Civil Rights’ Report on Racial Disparities in Maternal Health.  This issue is getting a lot of attention these days.  As usual, a lot of what you hear is wrong.

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES:  I should have pointed out this a couple of weeks ago:  The Biden Administration has reinstated the 2013 Fair Housing Act rule that had been promulgated during the Obama Administration.  It uses a disparate impact approach to housing law.  Sad.  For the long history of how disparate impact liability got started in Griggs v. Duke Power Co. read my article “Title VII Disparate Impact Liability Makes Almost Everything Presumptively Illegal.”  For background on how it leaked into housing law, read this.

MOTOR CITY:  In 1950, Detroit was the 5^th most populous city in the United States with a population of 1,849,568.  These days it has a population of about 632,464, making it the 27^th most populous.  And it is apparently hellbent on shrinking more.

The news out of Detroit is that 63% of its residents support reparations for slavery. Or to put the matter more precisely, a survey shows 63% support reparations to “counter the lasting impacts of slavery and discriminatory policies.”  Interestingly, the higher a respondent’s level of education, the more likely he or she would support reparations.

Not surprisingly, support was higher among African Americans (72%) than it was among whites (38%) or Latinos (27%).  But since Detroit’s population is 77% African American and only 10% white and 8% Latino, a solid majority of residents favor reparations.

The survey comes after a successful effort in 2021 (Proposal R) to call for a reparations task force to make recommendations for a reparations program by the City of Detroit.  The task force is at work now.

I can’t think of a more effective way to shrink the Detroit tax base still further.  Why would anyone who pays taxes to the City of Detroit, other than those who hope to be on the receiving end of the project, want to stick around? No doubt, even now, many are deciding to get out while the getting’s good.

There are, of course, other reasons to oppose the push for slavery reparations.  We’ve got to start talking about those reasons.  You might be surprised at how quickly a wrongheaded policy idea can become a train rolling downgrade.

EVERYONE NEEDS A FALLBACK JOB:  I tease my friends that if I ever really need a job, I can always be an Instacart buyer or a WalMart greeter.  But I just ran across another non-legal job that I probably can qualify for–professional mourner.

SCOTUS SHOULD OVERRULE IT THEN:  From Mike Rappaport:  It’s complicated, but Chevron was wrongly decided.

TOO MANY PEOPLE ARE MISINFORMED ABOUT THE NATURE OF  “STAND YOUR GROUND” LAWS:  Including this guy.

SNOWFLAKES:  “To help new students adapt, some colleges are eliminating grades.“

BECAUSE ALL OF OUR STUDENTS DESERVE TROPHIES:  The University of Pennsylvania is getting rid of its Dean’s List.

NUMBERS FROM CALIFORNIA:  “SEIU Faces Steep Declines in Membership and Revenue.”

VIDEO OF RECENT NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SCHOLARS EVENT:  “Anti-Asian Discrimination at College Admissions.”

The U.S. Commission of Civil Rights had a briefing on Friday about anti-Asian racism. Our progressive Staff Director wanted the briefing to be about anti-Asian hate crimes.  He considered it dirty pool that our witnesses wanted to bring up discrimination against Asians in college admissions.  He tried to stop them.  It was hilarious.  (Fortunately, we have the NAS to sponsor an event that takes on the anti-Asian college admissions issue head on.)

NO SURPRISE:  “Poster Child for Sex Changes is Miserable, Says ‘I Don’t Feel Like Me, Ever.'”  In the last 18 hours, I have heard from no less than two friends of mine who told me that their daughters who had hopped on the transgender bandwagon now realize that they are not transgender and are again happy to be girls.  The spell may be starting to lift.

IF YOU’RE A TWITTER USER, PLEASE CONSIDER RE-TWEETING THIS:

Why hasn’t Arkansas passed a ban on preferential treatment based on race or sex? Why is the bill stalled in the legislature? In 2020, even deep-blue Calif. voted overwhelmingly to keep such a ban. @SarahHuckabee @AGTimGriffin https://t.co/eTtXEvI5cf

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) March 21, 2023

If Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders endorses the bill, which is modeled after California’s Proposition 209, it stands a good chance of passing.  This can’t hurt and maybe it will help get her attention.

STALIN’S DEATH AT 70:  ¡No Pasarán! takes on the fashionable view that the Soviets really defeated the Nazis and the United States and the rest of the allies were just along for the ride.

UNDER SOCIALISM, JEAN WOULD HAVE TO GIVE JACK CAKES FOR DOING NOTHING:

What you’re describing is free enterprise, not socialism. Jack and Jean are voluntarily bartering. Good for them.

“It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest.” Adam Smith https://t.co/5uJ4AeS2y5

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) March 15, 2023

Happy to clear that up.