Man who led charge against affirmative action in college admissions sues law firms for discrimination
Students for Fair Admissions "reaffirms that ‘[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,’" both lawsuits state.
The man who pushed to end affirmative action in college admissions sued two law firms Aug. 22 for offering fellowships exclusively to ‘diverse’ candidates.
Led by Edward Blum, 71, the Texas-based American Alliance for Equal Rights (AAER) sued international law firms Perkins Coie LLP and Morrison & Foerster LLP for discrimination.
“Perkins Coie has been racially discriminating against future lawyers for decades,” the lawsuit filed in the Northern District of Texas states. “The firm’s ‘diversity fellowships’ for 1Ls and 2Ls exclude certain applicants based on their skin color. These prestigious positions are six-figure jobs that include five-figure stipends. Yet applicants do not qualify unless they are ‘students of color,’ ‘students who identify as LGBTQ+,’ or ‘students with disabilities.’ So between two heterosexual, nondisabled applicants—one black and one white—the latter cannot apply based solely on his race.”
Perkins Coie, which has offices in Dallas and Austin, “regularly hire[s] diversity fellows” and offers associate salaries that begin at $190,000 per year, the lawsuit states.
Perkins Coie will “defend the lawsuit vigorously,” a spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal Aug. 22.
The lawsuit against Morrison & Foerster similarly states that the firm has been discriminating for more than a decade by excluding certain applicants based on skin color for the Keith Wetmore 1L Fellowship for Excellence, Diversity, and Inclusion.
“Applicants do not qualify unless they are ‘African American/Black, Latinx, Native Americans/Native Alaskans, and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community,” the lawsuit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, states. “So between two heterosexual applicants—one black and one white—the latter cannot apply based solely on race.”
The firm hires associates from the Wetmore Fellowship, which is awarded in its “Miami office and elsewhere,” the lawsuit states. Associate positions at Morrison & Foerster begin at $215,000 per year.
Morrison & Foerster did not respond to Campus Reform’s request for comment.
Blum founded Students for Fair Admission (SFFA), which filed lawsuits denouncing affirmative action in the college admissions process at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admission v. University of North Carolina that race-conscious admissions violate the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution.
“SFFA reaffirms that ‘[e]liminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,’ both lawsuits against the law firms state.
Blum is a financial adviser by trade, has never practiced law, and did not attend law school, according to a profile piece by The Wall Street Journal. However, for the past three decades, he has been leading the charge to remove race-based decisions in American life.
“The 1964 Civil Rights Act clearly forbids treating Americans differently by race, that seems to have been lost over the years,” Blum told The Wall Street Journal.
