Center for Equal Opportunity - Affirmative Action

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THOUGHTS ON THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE OF RACIAL PREFERENCES--AND, ESPECIALLY, WHAT LITIGATION CAN ACCOMPLISH

Introduction: The use of racial preferences is concentrated in four areas: voting, contracting, education, and employment. There are some exceptions (e.g., appointments to state boards, some aspects of health care, etc.), but they are relatively minor.

Voting: With regard to voting (i.e., the requirement of racially gerrymandered districts under the Voting Rights Act), the issue is federalized (i.e., there is nothing that the states can do about it), and there is nothing to be done through the political branches (Congress overwhelmingly reauthorized these provisions last summer, and the President eagerly signed the bill). Thus, all that can be done for now is to challenge the constitutionality of the VRA; at least one lawsuit has been filed and is pending before a three-judge district court in the District of Columbia. For a discussion of the VRA's unconstitutionality, see here.

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Full testimony of Roger Clegg regarding the Native Hawaiian Government Reorganization Act of 2007 before the Hawai'i State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights on Aug. 20

My name is Roger Clegg, and I am president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, a nonprofit research and educational organization that is based in Falls Church, Virginia. Our focus is on public policy issues that involve race and ethnicity, such as civil rights, bilingual education, and immigration and assimilation.

Our chairman is Linda Chavez whom, you may recall, was once the staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and is now the chair of the Virginia State Advisory Committee. I should also note that I was a deputy in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division for four years, from 1987 to 1991.

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CEO President and General Counsel Roger Clegg Testified at House Oversight Hearings of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division

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CEO Publishes State-By-State Survey of Statutes

Use of racial or ethnic classifications and preferences in state statutes recorded by Federalist Society and posted here
The Federalist Society has recently completed a state-by-state survey of statutes that use racial or ethnic classifications and preferences. CEO posts it here, in the hopes that this will prompt state legislators to change these laws or, if they don't, that it will prompt legal challenges to them. It is outrageous that, in the year 2004, so many such laws are on the books, despite their unpopularity with the vast majority of Americans, and despite repeated Supreme Court rulings that racial and ethnic classifications are presumptively unconstitutional. The Federalist Society has finished preparing a paper that will summarize and analyze this survey. Working on it are Shawn Nevill and Roger Clegg, general counsel of CEO, who is also chairman of the Federalist Society's Civil Rights Practice Group, which initiated the survey.

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CEO President Roger Clegg finally testified before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

CEO president Roger Clegg finally testified before the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on the subject “Striking a Balance: EEO, Diversity, and Affirmative Action.”

Mr. Clegg had earlier been invited to testify last spring, but the Commission disinvited him at the last minute because of what he had to say (see May 16, 2006 item, below). His statement is divided into two parts: a resubmission of his earlier testimony, plus an update discussing events since then.

[ February 2007 Testimony ] - [ Revised May 2006 Testimony ]

Roger Clegg’s statement for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

Roger Clegg’s statement for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding “Striking a Balance: EEO, Diversity, and Affirmative Action."

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Comments With the California Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”)

On September 14, CEO president and general counsel Roger Clegg filed—on behalf of CEO and Ward Connerly’s American Civil Rights Institute—comments with the California Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”), opposing the agency’s proposal to reinstate preferences based on race, ethnicity, and sex in its federal highway contracting programs.
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Chavez, Clegg, Connerly and others urge Governor Schwarzenegger to reverse Caltrans proposal

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Preferences Based on Race, Ethnicity, and Sex in Government Contracting

One of the principal ways in which federal, state, county, and municipal governments discriminate is by awarding preferences based on race, ethnicity, and sex in their contracting. Sometimes companies owned by members of certain racial or ethnic groups—or by women—are awarded contracts even though they may not have submitted the lowest bid; on other occasions, prime contractors are required to set aside subcontracts for such companies or to treat their subcontracting bids more favorably. But anytime this sort of preferential treatment occurs, it is discrimination, and is a likely violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment, as well as other federal and state laws.

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