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.

HAPPY 120^th BIRTHDAY, MR. AMBASSADOR:  Mike Mansfield was a Democrat back when people like my (only slightly misguided) late mother could proudly call themselves Democrats.  He is best known as the U.S. Senator from Montana (1953 -1977) and Majority Leader (1961-1977).

My story, however, has to do with his later service as ambassador to Japan—a position to which Carter had appointed him.  Since Mansfield was well-regarded in both parties, Reagan kept him on.  The story’s source was George Shultz, secretary of state for most of the Reagan years.

It seems Shultz had a large, impressive globe in his Department of State office.  When newly appointed ambassadors came for an interview or existing ambassadors came to Washington for their first meeting with him, he would tease them by saying, “You have to go over to the globe and prove to me that you can identify your country.”  They would spin the globe and put their finger on the country they had been assigned.  No mistakes were ever made.  You don’t have to be a genius to be an ambassador, but you can’t be a complete dullard.  Even if you’ve been assigned to Lower Slobbovia, you’d better be able to find it on the globe.

Mansfield was different.  When Shultz asked him to “identify your country,” Mansfield confidently spun the globe and put his hand on the United States.  “That’s my country,” he said.

And indeed it was.

Years later, Shultz said on C-Span’s Booknotes, “I’ve told that story, subsequently, to all the ambassadors going out. ‘Never forget you’re over there in that country, but your country is the United States.  You’re there to represent us.  Take care of our interests and never forget it, and you’re representing the best country in the world.’”

Mansfield served his country well—first in the military during WWI (he was only 14, but he lied about his age), then in both houses of Congress, and finally as ambassador.  He died in 2001 at the age of 98.

RICHARD SANDER:  “Law-School ‘Mismatch’ Is Worse Than We Thought:  With the Supreme Court Poised to Rule on Affirmative Action in Admissions, the Time to Spread the Word Is Now.”

HOW MANY TRUMP ADMINISTRATION POLICIES HAVE BEEN REVIVED BY A CHASTENED BIDEN ADMINISTRATION?:  “Biden may revive detention of migrant families caught crossing the border illegally.”  (My first-hand report on a quite nice family detention center in 2015 is here.)

ZOMBIES AMONG US:

We live in a world of political zombies. No matter how many times the “wage gap” is debunked, it comes back again, hungry for our brains. https://t.co/ARX91G0ilH

— Gail Heriot (@GailHeriot) March 15, 2023

The little girl who (supposedly) wrote the message can be forgiven.  Biden … not so much.

ARE YOU (OR DO YOU KNOW) A LAW STUDENT INTERESTED IN CIVIL RIGHTS LAW?:  The Center for Equal Opportunity is accepting applications for its Civil Rights Fellowship.  The program, which takes place August 7-11 in Washington, DC, is intended for law students interested in learning about civil rights law, policy and enforcement practices.   Lodging, meals, and travels expenses are provided as well as a $500 stipend.

There aren’t nearly enough young conservative or libertarian lawyers knowledgeable about civil rights law and willing to work in this area.  This program is intended to help solve that problem.  But while CEO itself has a proud history of advocating equal treatment for all, the program welcomes students of differing views.  The more we talk to each other, the more we learn.

I taught in the program last year.  I’m not sure if I’ll be teaching in it this year … but I might be.

WAITING FOR THE SUPREME COURT’S DECISION IN HARVARD/UNC:  This is an older article, but if you haven’t had a chance to read about mismatch yet, it has the virtue of being short:  “Want to be a Doctor?  A Scientist?  An Engineer?  An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances.”  (Longer discussion of mismatch here.)

The Supreme Court’s decision will come out sometime between now and the end of June.  June is a better bet than March, April or May.

“AN AGENDA FOR CONGRESS“:  I got to talk about this paper a bit over the weekend at a small gathering in Santa Monica.  It’s good to get meet with people who are serious about getting the country back on track.

DeSANTIS GETS BRAGGING RIGHTS:  I haven’t made it a secret that I am a fan of Governor DeSantis.  Last September, I worried that he would be unfairly blamed for whatever damage Hurricane Ian was able to inflict on the Sunshine State.  (As you will recall, the mainstream media was weirdly successful in convincing the country that Bush was to blame for Hurricane Katrina, and far too many Americans bought the story that Trump was to blame for Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico).   Fortunately, DeSantis has been able to point out how successful he was in dealing with Ian (most recently in his State of the State address a few days ago).  Purr.

TIME FOR A LITTLE REALISM:  A few years back, at a briefing held before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, a well-dressed man with Down Syndrome testified that he “wanted to have a job where I could wear a suit and tie and carry a briefcase and be a professional like my dad who was a teacher.”

It would have been cruel to tell him that he was not going to be a physician, a scientist, an engineer, a dentist, or a lawyer.   Nor was he likely to end up in one of the many other challenging jobs where intellectual aptitude matters.  No one in attendance would have dreamed of being that cruel.

He gave a speech that was almost certainly written by somebody else.  In it, he said that, growing up, he had felt “segregated, devalued, invisible and not respected,” all of which may well have been true. After the briefing he was shuffled off by his minder.  It was obvious he had not gotten to the Commission offices by himself.  (On the other hand, it is important not to underestimate him or any other Down Syndrome adult.  I thought he did quite well considering his situation.)

He was there on behalf of the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress.  In that capacity, he was advocating for the repeal of a federal program that allows a limited number of employers to hire Down Syndrome and other severely disabled workers at less than minimum wage.  This highly regulated program (Section 14c of the Fair Labor Standards Act) was created during the FDR Administration.  It makes it possible for many otherwise unemployable individuals to find employment.

Some of those who argue for the program’s repeal are honest about it:  They admit that many severely disabled workers will not be able to find jobs at competitive wages.  The jobs they are currently doing will either disappear entirely or be filled by more efficient workers, probably recent immigrants with poor English skills and little education.  Even so, those recent immigrants will likely be more productive than most of the severely disabled individuals who hold the jobs now.  As far as I can tell, the biggest beneficiary of a repeal will be the SEIU.

Those who are honest about it further admit that states will instead have to expand their social services programs to include more daycare for the severely disabled.  I don’t see how this solves the witness’s feeling of being “segregated, devalued, invisible, and not respected.”  It seems to me it makes it worse.

That’s seems to be what the family members of these individuals think, too.  While the Commission was working on the report, we were deluged with comments—almost 10,000 of them—of which 98% asked for the program be continued.

(more…)

HOW COULD I FORGET OUR ANNIVERSARY?:  Yesterday was the anniversary of the Griggs v. Duke Power Co. (1971) decision, in which the Supreme Court adopted disparate impact liability under Title VII.  If you want to understand just how awful this decision was (and is), read “Title VII Disparate Impact Liability Makes Almost Everything Presumptively Illegal.” Griggs brought us to where we are today–where the desire for equal outcomes rather than equal opportunity drives federal policy.