WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last month, America First Legal (AFL) joined as co-counsel in a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the use of race and sex preferences at New York University. And on Friday, the Supreme Court of the United States requested a response from the university’s lawyers.
Federal law prohibits universities that accept federal funds from discriminating on account of race or sex. Yet the New York University Law Review is flouting these anti-discrimination laws by asking authors to identify their race, sexual orientation, and gender identity when submitting manuscripts for publication—and it admits on its website that it considers whether submissions have been written by “authors from underrepresented backgrounds” when deciding which articles to publish. The NYU Law Review also gives discriminatory preferences to racial minorities, women, homosexuals, and transgender individuals when selecting its members—a practice that violates the clear and unequivocal text of Title VI and Title IX.
The petition asks the Supreme Court to grant the petition and reverse the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which dismissed a lawsuit that sought to enjoin the use of race and sex preferences by the NYU Law Review.
Statement From America First Legal VP and General Counsel, Gene Hamilton:
“Equal protection under the law will never be achieved so long as institutions are permitted to hold one group of citizens down based on an immutable characteristic such as race or sex. If we desire justice in the future, we cannot remedy injustice in the past with injustice in the present,” Gene Hamilton said.
The case is Faculty, Alumni, and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences v. New York University, No. 21-1046.
Read the petition for certiorari at SCOTUS here.
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