THE DAILY BLADE: Some Questions Are Best Not Asked
Are affirmative action programs that place black students at elite law schools doing them a favor? Maybe not – but we’ll never know for sure, because liberals who are emotionally invested in quotas and race-based preferences are afraid to find out.
A 2004 study by UCLA School of Law professor Richard Sander published in The Stanford Law Review suggested that affirmative action could explain the high bar exam failure rate of black students. Sander concluded that because minority students were academically unprepared for the rigors of elite law schools, they were less likely to pass the bar exam than minority students who attended lower tier law schools. Sander theorized that had law schools used color-blind admissions practices, the number of minority lawyers in 2004 would have been 8 percent higher.
Sander wanted to test his hypothesis by examining historic data on bar exam scores in CA for the last 25 years, but the State Bar's Committee of Bar Examiners turned him down on the flimsy excuse that bar applicants personal data isn't collected for use by third parties. Sander says the State Bar essentially shut him down because only CA has compiled the detailed information on bar applicants he requires.
Predictably, Sander has come under fire for daring to ask an uncomfortable question, but he is hardly a bigot:
"I've been a civil rights activist most of my life," he said. "I have a son who is African-American. So I deeply believe in the idea of fostering integration and greater equality of outcomes in our society. But I've got grave doubts that affirmative action in higher education is the way to do that." …
"We know this is a controversial issue, and I was prepared that they might turn us down," Sander said last week. "But I was shocked at the way they did it. ... It suggests that backers of current affirmative action programs are afraid of the facts."
Two high-profile CA law firms are considering a pro bono lawsuit to compel the State Bar to comply with Sander’s request.
Illegal Immigrants Driven From U.S. Flood Canada Seeking Refugee Status
Talk about the law of unintended consequences: Stepped up enforcement of immigration laws in southwestern Florida has led to an influx of illegal aliens from Mexico and Haiti filing refugee claims with the Canada Border Services Agency. Reports The Windsor Star (Ontario):
Over the past three weeks, 45 families and 31 individuals - approximately 200 people - entered Canada at the Detroit River crossings and applied in Windsor for shelter and social assistance …
"When there is a possibility of adding thousands to the local social assistance system as a result of refugee claimants crossing the border into Windsor, we will become overwhelmed and our current resources will not suffice," [Windsor Mayor Eddie] Francis wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
"We don't have the means, ability or capacity to deal with this additional cost. We are not able to deal with this potential crisis locally," Francis wrote Harper.
The illegal aliens are claiming to be "economic refugees," but Canada grants refugee status only to those who can prove they are trying to escape persecution in their native land. The odds are against Mexicans attempting this ploy: Canada accepted only 13 percent of refugee claims filed by Mexican citizens during the first six months of this year, as compared 47 percent overall:
"The fact someone wants to come here for better economic opportunity or a better quality of life ... that's no basis for a successful refugee claim," said Immigration Refugee Board (IRB) spokesman Charles Hawkins. …
So what’s luring all these illegal aliens to The Great White North? It takes roughly 14 months for each refugee claim to be processed, during which time an applicant is eligible for public assistance. Even when an application is rejected, a claimant can continue to sponge off Canadian taxpayers by appealing to federal court.
Turkish Nationalist Hacks, Defaces Vietnam Veterans Memorial Web Site
A Turkish Nationalist going by the alias "Turk Defacer" hacked the Vietnam Veterans Memorial site, blocking access to a database that allows users to search U.S. casualties by date by redirecting them to "an all-red Web page adorned with a symbol from the Turkish flag, a short video, and messages in Turkish and English [that] attacked Kurds, the United States, Israel and Armenia," reports The Washington Post. Users reported the hack to the FBI, the National Park Service and the 4/9 Infantry Manchu (Vietnam) Association, which maintains the site. The Web site has been repaired.
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