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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today America First Legal (AFL), along with co-counsel Jonathan F. Mitchell and Stone Hilton PLLC, sued Northwestern University for discriminating against white men in its faculty hiring and the Northwestern University Law Review for discriminating against white men when selecting its articles, editors, and members.
Federal law prohibits universities that accept federal funds from discriminating on account of race or sex. Yet Northwestern University and the Northwestern University Law Review are flouting these anti-discrimination laws by allegedly giving discriminatory preferences to racial minorities and women while discriminating against white men.
Since 2012, under the leadership of then-Dean Daniel Rodriguez, Northwestern’s law school allegedly propagated and enforced a mandate to hire as many non-white and non-male faculty candidates as possible. Dean Rodriguez knew that this discriminatory hiring edict was illegal and would expose the university to lawsuits. So he ordered members of the Northwestern faculty members to never discuss candidates for hiring over the faculty listserv, and explicitly mentioned litigation risk as his reason for banning listserv discussions of faculty candidates.
To fulfill this mandate, Northwestern’s law school has hired faculty candidates from preferred demographics while rejecting white men with vastly superior publication records and far more impressive educational and professional credentials. The Northwestern University Law Review also engages in race and sex discrimination by giving discriminatory preferences to women, racial minorities, homosexuals, and transgender individuals when selecting its articles, editors, and members.
Northwestern University receives federal funding and must follow our national civil-rights laws and explicitly disavow all race and sex preferences when hiring faculty.
Discrimination on the basis of race and sex is illegal, yet America’s once respected and prestigious universities have decided to flout federal civil rights statutes. America First Legal will not stop fighting to hold universities like Northwestern accountable in the pursuit of equality.
Statement from Jonathan F. Mitchell, lead counsel:
“This is the first of many lawsuits that will be filed against universities that refuse to implement colorblind and sex-neutral faculty-hiring practices. Our client has standing to sue any university we want, and any professor who has incriminating evidence should reach out to us.”
Statement from Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Executive Director:
“Federal law prohibits discriminating against any American citizen on the basis of race or sex–yet the pervasiveness and extent of such discrimination is the worst-kept secret in academia. No one should receive an advantage because of their immutable characteristics, and no one should be disadvantaged. Decisions need to be made based on merit and excellence alone, and we will fight for the rights of all Americans to be free from race and sex discrimination in the United States,” said Gene Hamilton.
Read the lawsuit here.
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