The US Civil Rights Commission just held a hearing on affirmative action in law school admissions. One highlight was sparring between Volokh Conspirator David Bernstein and the head of the ABA law school accrediation process over whether the ABA's proposed new guidelines effectively mandate the use of racial quotas and preferences. Also, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that my UCLA law school colleague Richard Sander testified on the impact of affirmative action on minority law students:
Richard Sander, a law professor at the University of California at Los Angeles, focused his comments not on institutions’ consideration of race but on the negative effects he sees affirmation active having on black law school students. He said the most recent data available — which are from 1991 — show that black students are 2.5 times more likely than white students not to graduate law school, and four times more likely to fail the bar on their first attempt. “We are essentially setting them up for failure under this system,” he told the commission.
Sander argued that a cascade effect is in place, in which the top-tier law schools, using what he calls a “racial double-standard,” admit minority students who, in a race-blind system, would be accepted into second-tier schools. The second-tier schools thus admit what Sander says are unqualified minority applicants because the schools feel pressure to have a diverse student body. If minority students at first-tier schools struggle academically, they can become disheartened and dropout, he said.
Sander’s argument is predicated on the idea that a student is better off flourishing at a lower-ranked school than floundering at a more elite institution.
Richard's website has lots of supporting information.
