Human Rights Organization Sued for Racial Bias; Supreme Court to Hear Affirmative Action Preferences at Harvard

The former president of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest LGBT advocacy group, has sued the organization in federal court alleging that he was underpaid and then terminated "because he is Black" and saying that the group has a "deserved reputation for unequal treatment of its non-White employees."  This may come as a surprise to some to know that employees of "equal employment" and "civil rights" groups have often sued their employers over the same issues.  There is no better example than the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which has more employment discrimination charges filed against it per capita than any other organization in the entire country.  

At the same time, the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear an incredibly controversial case involving affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.  Harvard has rejected the claims of discrimination and says that it only considered race in a flexible way, as one factor among many in building diverse classes of students.  The Supreme Court's 1978 decision in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke barred the use of racial quotas but said schools could still use race in some circumstances for assembling a diverse student body.

The current case will address what the "race plus factor" means and how it should be applied.  Some say the old goal of "equality" is now applied by some as meaning "equity," which means unequal treatment in an effort to achieve equal results.

This is part of our March 2022 Newsletter.

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