RIGHT SENTIMENT, WRONG DAY:  On this day in 1776 (and not July 4th), the Continental Congress voted for independence from Great Britain.  The next day, in a letter to Abigail, John Adams rhapsodized:

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

Yes, we did eventually come to celebrate Independence Day with parades, bonfires and illuminations. But we chose the 4^th of July (the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted and signed) rather than the 2^nd of July when the vote for independence was taken.

Here’s one way the difference might matter:  Choosing the 4^th made Jefferson the most significant figure in the story, since he wrote the Declaration. If the 2^nd had caught on as the day to celebrate, it would have put Adams more at the center, since he was the more important oral advocate for independence.

IMAGINE THAT:  Evidently Laura Ingalls Wilder wasn’t a bloodthirsty Indian-hating Nazi after all.

OH DEAR:  I didn’t really want to know this.

WHOM THE GODS WOULD DESTROY THEY FIRST MAKE MAD: One interesting attribute of the Obama Administration’s education policy was its schizophrenia. On the one hand, it pushed schools into adopting tough anti-bullying policies (at the behest of the “LGBT community” part of its political coalition). On the other hand, it forced those same schools to lighten up on discipline (at the behest of the “civil rights community” part of its coalition). Well … uh … that’s a bit of a contortion: Stop the bullies, but don’t punish them.

The strategy doesn’t seem to work too well. And alas, the Trump Administration has not yet done anything to change that.

(By the way, neither policy is supported by law. If you want to know why the school discipline policy is unsupported by law, read the final version of my article (with Alison Somin) on school discipline. It explains not just why the Obama Administration’s policy is misguided, but why it is beyond the scope of the Department of Education’s authority.  On bullying, I have this Dissenting Statement from the Commission on Civil Rights report that cheered on the Obama anti-bullying policy from a few years ago.

MISMATCH: Two years ago this week, the Supreme Court decided Fisher v. University of Texas (2016)(Fisher II). By a 4-3 vote, it denied relief to Abigail Fisher, a young woman who had been discriminated against in admissions because she was white.

At oral argument, Justice Scalia (just two months before his death) had pointed out that there is evidence that when an affirmative action beneficiary (or an athlete or a legacy or anybody) attends a school where the rest of the students have much higher academic credentials, it hurts rather than helps his chance of ultimately becoming a doctor, a lawyer, an engineers, a professor or other high-status professional. Harry Reid (and the media) went wild, accusing Scalia of racism.

Despite the skewering, Scalia was simply stating a fact. There is plenty of evidence that “mismatch” is a problem. Try these:

A ‘Dubious Expediency’: How Race-Preferential Admissions Policies on Campus Hurt Minority Students 

Want to Be a Doctor? A Scientist? An Engineer? An Affirmative Action Leg Up May Hurt Your Chances

Alas, not enough people know about the mismatch effect (in large part because so-called liberals attack those who mention it). An organization that I am affiliated with recently conducted a focus group in part on this topic. I’m not a big fan of focus groups, but the results of this one were what I would have expected: The participants—ordinary citizens, many of them sympathetic toward race-preferential admissions—had never heard of the research on mismatch. When it was brought to their attention, they considered it very important.

So pass it on. Make sure your loved ones know about the evidence (yes, including your liberal brother-in-law).

NEW RONALD REAGAN MOVIE:  This time, the Gipper will get his due, says John Fund.  He writes:

The script premise is a fascinating one. It begins with a Putin-like figure, the new leader of Russia, visiting a nursing home to interview an old KGB agent named Viktor Petrovich (played by Jon Voight) to learn how Reagan and the U.S. defeated Communism. The movie tells Reagan’s story through Petrovich’s eyes as he follows Reagan for four decades; Petrovich can’t get his superiors to heed his warnings about Reagan until it is too late. The Petrovich character is a composite of several KGB agents who did indeed track Reagan throughout his career.

Sounds cool.

“MAX BOOT’S WEAK DEFENSE OF HARVARD’S AFFIRMATIVE ACTION”:  Ramesh Ponnuru destroys Boot’s four arguments one by one.

(And here’s one more argument against race-preferential admissions.)

HOT OFF THE PRESS!! The final version of my school discipline article (with Alison Somin)—The Department of Education’s Obama-Era Initiative on Racial Disparities in School Discipline: Wrong For Students and Teachers, Wrong on the Law—is now available. Alas, the Trump Administration has not yet rescinded that policy.

(Bumped, by Glenn).

GO SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY:  SIU to honor its alumnus-hero.   (I’m such a sucker for hero stories.  I can’t get enough of them.)

IT’S TURTLES ALL THE WAY DOWN 2:  If 45 spotted or box turtles will really sell in China for $40,000, this won’t be the last of the the turtle-nappings.  Maybe we need to arm our turtles …

ELIZABETH WARREN’S ACADEMIC CLAIM TO FAME MAY BE NO MORE LEGITIMATE THAN HER CLAIM TO BE NATIVE AMERICAN:  William A. Jacobson explains how this will be an issue if she decides to run for President.

I wrote about her highly questionable “research” on medical bankruptcies back in 2006.  If only the media (including the conservative media) had paid attention then …

I’M HOPING FOR THE CLARENCE THOMAS MOMENT INSTEAD:  Paul Mirengoff asks, “Is This the Sandra Day O’Connor Moment?”  O’Connor said  in Grutter v. Bollinger that she expected race-preferential admissions policies would no longer be necessary in 25 years.  That was 15 years ago, and the level of preferences has, if anything, increased.

TOXIC MASCULINITY IN HISTORY:  In honor of UW-Whitewater professor Kathleen Elliott’s suggestion that the evils of “toxic masculinity” should be taught starting in kindergarten, I looked up the death toll on the Titanic.  Sure enough, according to the figures I found, the survival rate for women was high–74%.  For men, not so much.  Only 16% survived.  And it wasn’t just a class thing.  Third-class (steerage) women were more likely to survive (49%) than first-class men (32%).  N.B.:  The reason for the difference was not that women are better than men at treading water.

ARE YOU A YOUNG PERSON IN AN UNPAID SUMMER INTERNSHIP (OR NO JOB AT ALL)? ARE YOU ANNOYED THAT YOU COULDN’T LAND A REAL JOB?: Well, understand that when the government passes laws that make it riskier for an employer to fire or lay off an employee (and there are lots of them), it makes employers more cautious at the hiring stage. The rise of unpaid summer internships is one of the economy’s ways of responding to the regulatory environment: The more protected jobs are, the harder they will be to get. Highly regulated employment relationships hurt young people most.

But take heart, we may be entering a period where even those with no job experience (or a blemished record) can land a paying job. I saw a post on my neighborhood notice board recently from a woman who was shocked to get a job offer (apparently after a lot of heartbreak). She needed clothing appropriate for the job—fast. And the neighborhood came up with what she needed. Good-o.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY, JUNE 21, 1788, NEW HAMPSHIRE RATIFIED THE CONSTITUTION, THUS CREATING OUR CONSTITUTIONAL ORDER: Article VII called for at least 9 states to agree before the Constitution would go into effect (whether or not the remaining 4 states joined in).  New Hampshire was the 9th, and thus its act was enough to declare the Constitution officially ratified.

But two of the largest states–Virginia and New York–were still not in, so few expected this as the end of the story.  Indeed, Virginia ratified only four days later (June 25), and New York signed on a month later on July 26, 1788.

The last two of the original 13 took much longer.  During the summer of 1788, North Carolina’s first ratifying convention declined to either ratify or reject the Constitution.  North Carolina ultimately had to start the process again with a new convention, which ratified on November 21, 1789.  By that point, George Washington was already President.  Rhode Island didn’t ratify until May 29, 1790.  Rhode Island had been told in no uncertain terms that if it didn’t ratify, it would be treated as a foreign nation for the purposes of trade, etc.  That was enough “persuasion.”

IT’S THE 93rd ANNIVERSARY OF AUDIE MURPHY‘S BIRTH:  Remember when every American boy and girl knew who he was?

FINEST HOUR:  On this day in 1940, Winston Churchill delivered his “Finest Hour” speech to the House of Commons.  His closing words:

What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. Upon it depends our own British life, and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their finest hour.”

The thousand years part seems doubtful at this point, but the “finest hour” part seems solid so far.

MORE ON THE LAWSUIT AGAINST HARVARD: According to the analysis by Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono, Harvard is not using race merely as a small “plus factor” in admissions. It’s a very large factor.  An Asian-American applicant with a 25% chance of admission would have a 35% chance if he or she were white, a 75% chance if Hispanic and a 95% if African American.  Arcidiacono studied only applicants who are non-athletes and non-legacies in order to take those factors out of the analysis.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADAM SMITH: Born on June 16, 1723 (NS).  “Little else is requisite to carry a state to the highest degree of opulence from the lowest barbarism but peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice: all the rest being brought about by the natural course of things.”

HARVARD DENIES DISCRIMINATING AGAINST ASIANS; FLUNKS LAUGH TEST: According to the analysis run by Duke University economist Peter Arcidiacono, if Harvard were to drop all racial preferences and penalties, the number of Asian Americans there would about double. Harvard’s explanation boils down to “Asians don’t have good personalities or character.” Problem for Harvard: The alumni who conduct the interviews rate Asian candidates just as high as whites on personality and character. It’s only the Harvard admissions staff members (who ordinarily don’t even interview the applicants) who mysteriously rate them much lower. Plaintiffs are asking for summary judgment. No reasonable fact finder could listen to Harvard’s defense without breaking out into laughter.

More on this issue later … Right now, I am in Chile, so I need to spend some time gazing at the magnificent Andes.

THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CASE WILL BE APPEALED TO FOURTH CIRCUIT:   As predicted, the Gloucester County School Board will indeed be appealing the U.S. District Court’s ruling in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board.

Gavin Grimm is an anatomical female who identifies as a male and who therefore sued the school board for the right to use the boys’ bathrooms, locker rooms and showers.  In late May, the District Court agreed that the failure to accord Grimm that right was sex discrimination under Title IX.  It held that providing Grimm with private facilities wasn’t good enough.

Peter Kirsanow and I filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Gloucester County School Board when this case was before the Supreme Court last year.  Back then the case was known by the initials “G.G.” as Grimm was not yet 18 years old.  The precise legal issue was a little different then–whether the courts should defer to the Obama Administration’s Dear Colleague Letter in interpreting Title IX. When the Trump Administration withdrew that Dear Colleague Letter, the Supreme Court remanded the case back to the lower courts for reconsideration in light of the Dear Colleague Letter’s withdrawal.  But so far at least, that hasn’t changed the outcome.

We will be re-tooling that brief for the Fourth Circuit.

NO “OBAMA KENNELS” FOUND BY MSNBC REPORTER (AND EVEN DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION, CONDITIONS WEREN’T SO BAD): As Glenn noted earlier today, MSNBC reporter Jacob Soboroff didn’t find any “Obama kennels” on his visit to the children’s shelter in Brownsville. That’s consistent with what the US Comm’n on Civil Rights saw (but failed to write about) when it toured actual detention facilities during the Obama Administration. In my personal statement to the report, I pointed out that the Commission’s majority had anticipated finding “egregious human rights and constitutional violations.” But as far as I could see, it hadn’t found them. I wrote:

[A] funny thing happened on the way to exposing “egregious human rights and constitutional violations.” The detention centers weren’t nearly as bad as we had been led to believe. Indeed, the Karnes facility was surprisingly attractive for a detention center.

Some of our Commission members and staff appeared to be quite surprised at the quality of treatment they saw. When we were led to a room at the Karnes facility that contained rows and rows of brand new brand-name clothing and told that new arrivals were permitted to select six outfits for themselves and each of their children, the looks on the faces of my colleagues were of astonishment. Questions were asked: “These clothes aren’t new, are they?” Yes, they are new, the tour guide explained. “I guess they are donated, right?” No, the tour guide replied, they are purchased by GEO (the private company that owns and manages the Karnes facility in cooperation with ICE).

The detention facility I’m referring to was for “families” (which means mothers and their minor children). But there are only so many beds in those facilities. When they fill up, other arrangements have to be made.

What I hope my fellow Commissioners got from this (although I’m not sure they did) was not to believe everything they hear about “egregious human rights violations” at immigration facilities. For example, the Commission heard testimony that the food at one of the facilities was full of maggots. But the evidence (as discussed in my Statement) made this highly unlikely.

CYBER-ATTACKS ON BANKS:  When everything’s connected, that means everything’s connected. That’s not always a wonderful thing.

WHICH IS REAL AND WHICH IS PARODY?  It’s not easy to tell.

ABC News:  Transgender teens outrun track and field competitors, but critics close behind.

Babylon Bee:  Man Identifying as 6-Year-Old Crushes Game-Winning Homer in Tee-Ball Championship.