I see the affirmative action debate and the role of the LSAT (Law
School Admissions Test) in that debate as the major challenges facing
this organization – and legal education – over the next several years.
The last thirty years have seen an opening up of law schools and the
legal profession to women and people of color. When I started law
school in 1965, only one woman and one Black were in my class. All of
my professors were white men. Nationally, the picture was no different.
Only 4 percent of the law students entering in the years from 1965 to
1968 were women – and the percentage of minorities was even lower. At
that time, law schools didn’t even keep track of minority enrollment.
Last year, the picture was very different. Look at almost any law
school today and you see minority students and minority faculty,
although not enough…. We have made tremendous progress, not only in
transforming legal education, but also in transforming the face of the
legal profession. Our task, however, is not complete. And it is
becoming more difficult with the recent attacks on affirmative action
policies and practices in law school admissions….
At law schools throughout the Fifth Circuit [U.S. District Court],
which decided the Hopwood case [which disallows the use of race as a
factor in college admissions], minority applications have dropped
significantly…. The real shocker, however, occurs when one considers
a particular school. For example, the effect of Hopwood at the
University of Texas shows . . . [that] applications from Black students
fell 42 percent this year, and eleven have received offers. For
Hispanics, the number of applicants dropped by 16 percent, and
thirty-three have been admitted.
Even more disturbing is the outcome. On May 21, the Dallas Morning
News reported that only one Black student has agreed to enroll in the
University of Texas Law School’s entering class next fall, and only
twelve Hispanic students have sent in tuition deposits to secure a
place.
The picture for California public schools is no better, with the
number of Black applicants dropping by 24.8 percent and of Mexican
American and Hispanic applicants by about 23 percent. Again, when these
figures are examined at a particular school, the effect of Proposition
209 [which bans the use of racial preferences for any state-funded
organization in California] and the [University of California] Regents’
policy [which forbids the use of racially sensitive admissions and
scholarship strategies in the UC system] becomes even more disturbing.
According to an Associated Press article on May 15, the number of
Blacks admitted to Berkeley’s law school tumbled 81 percent and
Hispanic admissions fell 50 percent. These percentages translate into
fourteen Black students admitted for fall 1997 compared to seventy-five
last year, and thirty-nine Hispanic students compared to seventy-eight
last year.
