This article presents an interview with Robert George, who holds Princeton's celebrated McCormick Chair in Jurisprudence and is the founding director of the James Madison Program. George has served on the President's Council on Bioethics and as a presidential appointee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. He is also a member of the…

In terms of political liberation and constitutional democracy, Americans cannot help but think back to 1776 and the Declaration of Independence. For the English, the mind reaches back to the English Declaration of Rights of 1689, and for those with somewhat longer historical memories, to Magna Carta of 1215. But the true origin of political…

In this article, the author talks about the report "A Crucible Moment: College Learning & Democracy's Future," which provides a blueprint of what higher education ought "not" to do. The document was produced by the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), an organization with a long history not only of demanding the advancement of…

In this article, the author provides a detailed legal history of originalism and investigates whether, and to what extent, originalism is a part of law school teaching on the Constitution. He shares the results of an examination of the leading constitutional law textbooks used in the top fifty law schools and a selection of responses gathered from…

The assumption behind the fierce competition for admission to elite colleges and universities is clear: The more elite the school one attends, the brighter one's future. That assumption, however, may well be flawed. The research examined recently by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights provides strong reason to believe that attending the most…

In this article, the author explores the attempts by academic theorists to replace the conception of marriage as a "natural" institution with the idea that marriage is defined by the state, and is therefore open to whatever transformations the state may choose to impose. This claim, which began in law schools and philosophy departments, eventually…

The American Sociological Association, the Modern Language Association, the American Historical Society, the American Psychological Association, and the American Anthropological Association have taken official stands on questions pertaining to America's current military involvement in Iraq. Here are their resolutions. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

In his keynote address at "Race and Gender Preferences at the Crossroads," a January 2008 conference organized by the California Association of Scholars, Ward Connerly confidently asserts that the era of explicit race preferences will soon be "deader than a doornail." However, it is up to those who remember (in the words of John F. Kennedy) that…

Professor Cohen describes the arduous path to the passage of Proposition 2 in Michigan in 2006. In considering the reasons for its victory, he shows how claims (sometimes well-intended) "for" preferences rest on truly bad arguments. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

Columnist George Will and others have questioned the continuing need for a federal civil rights commission, because civil rights protections have been on the books since 1964. The chairman of the Commission, Gerald Reynolds, here responds that practitioners of critical legal theory, advocates of the Akaka-Secession bill, some proponents of…

The idea that lawsuits can move a public as well as a legal agenda is not new. In recent years, conservatives have brought high profile lawsuits designed both to vindicate the rights of an individual plaintiff and to educate the public about an important issue. For example, lawsuits filed nearly 10 years ago against the University of Michigan's…

In pausing to reflect on twenty years service tending the fragile vineyards of higher education reform as president and one of the founders of the National Association of Scholars, Stephen H. Balch stops to toast his hardy fellow vintners. Dr. Balch raises a weary but wiser glass to those who across the years and in many states have braved harsh…

When the Supreme Court pronounces on race and education it makes headlines. On 28 June 2007 the Supreme Court revealed its long-anticipated decisions on "Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1 and "Meredith v. Jefferson County," proving that maneuvering the minefield of America's race relations is just as difficult…

The puzzlement that followed Justice O'Connor's convoluted opinion in "Grutter" is evolving into a remarkable consensus by players on both sides of the question on the use of race/ethnicity in academic settings. George R. La Noue examines new guidelines from The College Board: Science, Technology, and Mathematics professors; and major educational…

This account of an academic lawsuit qualifies as a horror story. A mediocre minority student abuses civil rights and ADA protections to win a massive monetary award against his school on the flimsiest of evidence. Jaded lawyers for the state university represent powerless faculty defendants in court, torpidly allowing the jury to throw 50 years of…