Affirmative Action

The Federalist Society and Black Law Students Association (BLSA) held events November 2, 2006, on affirmative action. Cruz Reynoso, Boochever and Bird Chair for the Study and Teaching of Freedom and Equality, professor of law at UC Davis, and former associate justice of the CA Supreme Court, debated Roger Pilon, vice president for legal affairs at the Cato Institute and founder and director of Catos Center for Constitutional Studies. Jennifer Chacon, acting professor of law, moderated the noontime debate, which centered on whether affirmative action is consistent with equal protection.

Later that evening, Paul Beard, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, Alan Brownstein, professor of law at UC Davis, Tania Kapper, an expert witness on the effects of banning affirmative action on K-12 students, and Scott Sommerdorf, a fellow in the College of Public Interest Law, discussed Proposition 209, the controversial 1996 California ballot proposition that amended the state Constitution, prohibiting discrimination or preferential treatment by state and other public entities on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin. Professor Chacon moderated.