Graduation Year

2024

Date of Submission

4-2024

Document Type

Open Access Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Government

Reader 1

Charles Kesler

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Rights Information

© 2024 Agosto H Aliaga

Abstract

When the Supreme Court ruled race-conscious admissions to be unconstitutional in SFFA v. Harvard, it sent the higher education world into shock. About 200 universities across the nation who featured admissions systems selective enough to where a student’s race impacted their admission probability were forced to restructure their admissions. As media outlets reports on the decision dominated the headlines, the man responsible for the Students for Fair Admissions’ victory, Edward Blum, quietly shifted his attention to his next target, the business world. Blum, a professional plaintiff with the goal of ridding America of race-conscious policies, understands better than anyone that his success in establishing new precedent in education- related affirmative action policy significantly boosts the odds of a subsequent success in the business world. Unsurprisingly, prior to the SFFA ruling, Blum created the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment and filed lawsuits against several corporate boards.

This thesis predicts the future structure, if any, of antidiscrimination law in hiring practices. It first looks to the past to establish a trend in Supreme Court decisions through dissecting the rulings in SFFA v. Harvard and other major affirmative action cases. The thesis then explores Blum’s past successes, his philosophy, and his future aspirations. Next, it evaluates the impact affirmative action has on economic outcomes, liberty, and discrimination today through arguments from the likes of Richard Epstein and Stacy Hawkins. Lastly, after examining arguments on the justifications backing antidiscrimination laws, the thesis concludes by offering a prediction for the future of race-conscious hiring practices.

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