Two interesting affirmative action posts over at BlackProf.
The first has to do with the upcoming supreme court cases which will test diversity programs in the K-12 system. It seems like a very similar question to what was already resolved in Gratz and Grutter v. Bollinger, but the Court has lost one (barely) pro-AA member (O’Connor) and gained one who is almost definitely against it (Aliton). That could flip the 5-4.
The second post relates to a new study (PDF) arguing that Affirmative Action actually hurts Black lawyers by (essentially) putting them in over their head. I haven’t gotten around to reading the article yet, but I did read this favorable review which was entirely unhelpful (it admitted that the response article had good points, but didn’t say what they were before dismissing them as “unpersuasive”).
Also, I think that the BP has added three new people to its permanent roster: Terry Smith, Shavar Jeffries, and Christopher Bracey. I really wish they would announce these things formally, but whatever. Go over there and give the newbies a warm welcome.