Edward Blum’s newest anti-affirmative action group sued Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster, alleging that diversity fellowships at the firms are unlawful in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning affirmative action.
“This kind of rank discrimination was never lawful, even before SFFA v. Harvard held that colleges cannot use race in admissions,” the suit alleges.
Blum founded Students for Fair Admissions, which won in the Supreme Court against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, in which the justices overturned affirmative action in admissions. Blum’s newest vehicle, The American Alliance for Equal Rights, filed the lawsuits against the international firms over fellowships aimed at hiring diverse candidates. The suit asks the respective courts to permanently bar the firms’ current diversity fellowships.
Perkins Coie and Morrison Foerster offer academic scholarships ranging from $15,000 to $25,000 as part of their fellowship programs. Fellowships that the firms started decades ago.
“Excluding students from these esteemed fellowships because they are the wrong race is unfair, polarizing and illegal,” Blum said in a statement. “Law firms that have racially-exclusive programs should immediately make them available to all applicants, regardless of their race.”
As reported in Linked in Newsletter from
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