Race-conscious admissions are not about guaranteeing access or giving extra points. We want to see applicants for their whole selves, for their true selves.

MONTEREY/SANTA BARBARA, CA, UNITED STATES, July 4, 2023/EINPresswire.com/ -- SideBar Podcast on The Legal Talk Network Welcomes Damon T. Hewitt, President and Executive Director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. Hewitt has more than 20 years of civil rights litigation and policy experience, including prior leadership roles in the nonprofit, philanthropic, and public sectors.

The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law has a rich and dynamic history of service, seeking to secure for all the rights that are the ideals on which our country was founded. The Committee was created at the request of President John F. Kennedy in the summer of 1963. Kennedy urged the Committee’s founders to use their training and influence to move the struggle for the protection of civil rights from the streets to the courts. Over the past forty-five years, the Lawyers’ Committee has developed a network and a tradition that were able to adapt to and meet these challenges.

Co-host Jackie Gardina noted, “We have invited Damon Hewitt to SideBar because the Lawyer’s Committee argued before the Supreme Court on two cases this term involving the question of whether colleges and universities can use race as a factor in their processes. Both cases seek to prohibit colleges and universities from using race as a factor in admissions. The Lawyer’s Committee argued in defense of current law that allows certain race-conscious admission policies.”

According to Hewitt, “If we think we’ve made progress since the Fisher cases [Fisher v. University of Texas], if we think we’ve made progress since Grutter [Grutter v. Bollinger], if we think we’ve made progress since Bakke [Regents of the University of California v. Bakke], if we think we’ve made progress since Brown v Board of Education, what’s at stake here today is whether that progress can continue or whether the clock gets rolled back. Race-conscious admissions are not about guaranteeing access or giving extra points. It is acknowledging we want to see applicants for their whole selves, for their true selves. It is to strive for campuses that reflect the diversity of our country.”

SideBar cohost Mitchel Winick pointed out that “this is one of the most important and impactful issues before the Supreme Court this term. We are fortunate to have someone of Damon’s experience and direct involvement to help us understand both the history, current status, and future impact of these issues from both a societal and legal standpoint.”

Hewitt appears frequently in broadcast media. He is co‐author of a book, “The School‐to‐Prison Pipeline: Structuring Legal Reform”, and has published numerous articles in law journals and popular media on issues ranging from affirmative action, school discipline, and progressive education reform to voting rights, police accountability, and juvenile justice policy. Hewitt holds a B.A. in Political Science from Louisiana State University and a J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. Following law school, he clerked for the Honorable Eric L. Clay on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

To listen to current SideBar episodes, read our blog, learn about future guests, and to contact the co-hosts with ideas, comments, or questions, go to www.sidebarmedia.org.

Mitchel Winick
MONTEREY COLLEGE OF LAW
+1 8315824000
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