The Volokh Conspiracy
Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent
Some "Classified" Events
Some upcoming events, plus a new review and a podcast.
An update regarding my book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classifications in America:
The Federalist Society's Civil Rights Practice Group will be hosting a teleforum on Tuesday, Sept. 6, at 1pm. You can register here.
The Cato Institute will be hosting a book forum/luncheon on Wednesday, Sept. 7, at noon, with commentary from Jane Coaston, host of The Argument at the New York Times, and Robert Cottrol, Professor of Law, George Washington University Law School. Wally Olson of Cato will moderate. You can register for in-person or virtual attendance here--the virtual program will start at approximately 12:20.
For those of you in the Bay Area, I will be speaking at Berkeley Law School on Wednesday, Sept. 14 at 12:50 PST. I don't know the room yet.
I will also be speaking at the University of Toledo Law School on Monday, September 19, at noon, and, for those of you in Philly, Temple Law School on Thursday, October 6, at noon.
Some other Classified news:
ONU Law Professor Scott Gerber reviewed the book in Law & Liberty.
And here's a podcast I recorded with Ed Morrisey of Hot Air.
Finally, Bill McGurn at the Wall Street Journal quotes from an amicus brief that was based on my research for the book:
Even so, one of the more persuasive friend-of-the-court briefs argues that such a decision would still leave unfinished business. Filed by David Bernstein of George Mason University's Antonin Scalia Law School, it suggests that not only are racial preferences arbitrary, unfair and unconstitutional, so are the racial boxes the schools use to classify students.
Take "Asian," a label that covers 60% of the world's population—lumping Indians with Chinese and Cambodians and Koreans. They have almost nothing in common, from religion to language to culture.
Same with "Hispanic." Harvard and UNC, Mr. Bernstein writes, can't "explain why white Europeans from Spain, people of indigenous Mexican descent, people of Afro-Cuban descent, and South and Central Americans who may be any combination of European, African, and indigenous by descent are grouped together as 'Hispanic.' "
