AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION: Rick Sander is guest-blogging at the Volokh Conspiracy, about his new study arguing that affirmative action “hurts black law students more than it helps them, by bumping applicants up into law schools where they are more likely to earn poor grades, drop out, and fail their states’ bar exams.” I note that I’m totally incompetent to judge the study itself. But it’s a really interesting subject and will be looking forward to reading Prof. Sander’s posts. Here’s his schedule:

–How does affirmative action in law schools work? (Monday)

–How do racial preferences affect the performance of blacks in law school and on the bar? (Tuesday)

–How do racial preferences affect how blacks do in the job market for lawyers? (Wednesday)

–What would the black bar look like if we abolished or limited racial preferences? (Thursday)

And his comments: “As Eugene suggested, there are a few things that make my work on this topic unusual. First, I’m somewhere in the liberal-left spectrum on most issues, and I’ve worked actively in civil rights (especially on the issue of housing segregation) through most of my career. So my generally negative conclusions about affirmative action put me at odds with many close friends (not to mention former funders). Second, the study is heavily data-driven. Good longitudinal datasets on law students and lawyers have only recently become available, making it possible to ask questions that we could only speculate about before. Third, my interest in affirmative action policies of law schools is not whether they betray general normative goals, whether they are unfair to whites, or whether they have subtle negative effects on blacks–instead, I’m focused on whether the policies meet their simplest goals of producing more and better black lawyers. I was surprised and dismayed to find that, in most cases, the policies fail at this basic level.”