On Tuesday, a conservative organization calling itself Faculty, Alumni, and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences, “formed for the purpose of restoring meritocracy in academia,” initiated legal proceedings against Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law. The lawsuit alleges that the institution’s hiring practices for faculty positions unfairly discriminate against white male candidates.
The plaintiffs argue that Northwestern’s initiatives to enhance diversity among its law school faculty violate anti-discrimination laws. They cited the recent Supreme Court decisions in the Students for Fair Admissions cases against Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill as precedent. According to the lawsuit, only three out of the last 21 faculty positions at Pritzker were filled by white men.
The legal complaint asserts that for many years, liberal-leaning faculty and administrators have disregarded federal anti-discrimination laws. It claims they have consistently favored hiring women and racial minorities with allegedly less impressive qualifications over white male candidates who purportedly possess superior credentials, academic publications, and teaching abilities.
Northwestern spokesman Jon Yates said in a statement that “Northwestern Pritzker School of Law is among the top law schools in the country, and we are proud of their outstanding faculty.”
That’s very cool, but the complaint charges that “leftist ideologues on faculty-appointments committees and in university D.E.I. offices” do the hiring at the law school, resulting in white candidates with “stellar credentials” being denied jobs at Northwestern.
“For decades, left-wing faculty and administrators have been thumbing their noses at federal anti-discrimination statutes and openly discriminating on account of race and sex when appointing professors. They do this by hiring women and racial minorities with mediocre and undistinguished records over white men who have better credentials, better scholarship, and better teaching ability,” the complaint says.
Ouch.
The lead lawyer for the plaintiffs, Jonathan F. Mitchell, a renowned conservative attorney from Texas, said in a statement on Tuesday, “We’re just getting started,” adding, “Any professor who has incriminating evidence should reach out to us.”
In a landmark ruling in June 2023, the United States Supreme Court struck down “race-conscious” admissions policies at colleges and universities nationwide. The decision, split along ideological lines, saw the conservative majority of six justices overturning admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
This verdict marked a significant shift from decades of legal precedent, which had previously been upheld by narrow Supreme Court majorities that included justices appointed by Republican presidents. The ruling effectively prohibits both public and private higher education institutions from considering race as a factor in their admissions processes.
The decision did away with liberal higher education admissions policies in the United States, challenging efforts to promote diversity on campuses through policies that drove away mainstream, white male candidates.
