The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights is condemning affirmative action in law school admissions and calling on Congress to mandate law schools to publicly disclose their use of racial preferences in a report that critics say relies heavily on the questionable research of one anti-affirmative action advocate.
For the past two years, the Republican-dominated U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has embarked on a critical examination of the American Bar Association’s Standard 212, which requires law schools show “concrete action” towards student diversity. The USCCR heard testimony from a number of legal scholars who offered analyses on whether law school admissions diversity requirements hurt minority students’ performance and retention.
Witnesses like Raymond C. Pierce, dean of North Carolina Central University Law School and Dr. Richard O. Lempert, a University of Michigan professor of law and sociology, argued in favor of affirmative action in law school admissions. However, testimony and research from UCLA Law Professor Richard Sander has been the basis of a new USCCR report urging the ABA to drop its diversity requirement.
In his article, “Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law,” that appeared in the Stanford Law Review in November 2004, Sander presented findings of a qualitative analysis of law school academic performance data that revealed that minority law students were being accepted to a law school a tier above what they would have qualified for without affirmative action.
Sander’s findings indicate that half of African-American law students are in the bottom 10 percent of their law school class at the end of their first year. He also finds that Blacks have two-and-a-half times the dropout rate of White counterparts; four times the initial bar failure rate; and six times the chance of never passing the bar.
The USCCR used Sander’s article and testimony as a basis of a new report, titled “Affirmative Action in Law Schools,” which concluded that “admitting students into law schools for which they might not academically be prepared could harm their academic performance and hinder their ability to obtain and secure gainful employment.”
The USCCR report agrees with Sander, finding that racial preferences in law school admissions may contribute to poor academic performance and completion rates among some minorities, and the USCCR calls on Congress to pass legislation requiring federally funded law schools to publicly disclose their use of racial preferences.
