The University of Michigan’s (UM) law review journal is allegedly using illegal racial preferencing to achieve a “diverse” board of student editors.
A lawsuit filed by the Faculty, Alumni, and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences (FASORP) accuses UM and the Michigan Law Review Association of being “unhappy with the demographic makeup produced by merit-based selection” and said the journal began using a “holistic” approach in which students were “encouraged to identify their race, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity in the personal statement.”
The journal is made up of students attending the university’s law school, who edit and operate the journal and are also responsible for selecting new members. Previously, the journal used a merit-based approach that based eligibility on a student’s first-year grades and performance in a writing competition, according to the complaint.
“The University remains steadfast in its commitment to following the law,” a UM Law School spokesman told the DCNF. “We will vigorously defend against these allegations.”
The lawsuit, filed by America First Legal (AFL) on behalf of FASORP, states that “left-wing students and affirmative-action devotees” corrupted the merit-based approach.
“No American should ever face discrimination based on their race,” Gene Hamilton, president of AFL, said in a statement to the DCNF. “Yet, despite clear law and multiple Supreme Court decisions, racial discrimination continues to be pervasive throughout academia. AFL will not tolerate this unconstitutional discrimination at the University of Michigan and is taking decisive action to restore meritocracy and protect American values.”
The Michigan Law Review did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
The complaint alleges that conservative students are “never chosen” for any position that would give them power to select incoming members and that the holistic review process is specifically engineered to discriminate against male, white, Asian and Christian students.
The University of Michigan has a sordid history of pursuing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), previously running the largest and most expensive program in the nation before dismantling it in March. The massive DEI bureaucracy cost the school over $250 million since 2016 and maintained nearly 250 employees committed to DEI efforts.
The program was shuttered after reports circulated that the campus climate was worsened by the efforts, with students and staff becoming less likely to interact with people of a different race, religion or political ideology. Attempts to create a more diverse campus also fell flat, with black enrollment at the university remaining a steady 5%.
The Trump administration has been taking complaints about racial discrimination seriously in recent months, launching investigations into entire school systems and over 50 universities over alleged racial preferencing.
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