On August 22, 2023, the American Alliance for Equal Rights filed two major United States law firms for fellowships that the organizations believes are discriminatory in nature.
Namely, the organization offers fellowships to racial minorities and LGBT individuals, which the anti-affirmative action group believes constitutes an illegal form of discrimination against white candidates. The American Alliance for Equal Rights filed lawsuits against Perkins Coie in Dallas and Morrison & Foerster in Miami two months following the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action policies used by many universities to boost the enrollment of non-whites.
The lawsuits were put forward in federal courts. They accused both law firms of illegally discriminating against white candidates by limiting which race of law students could receive paid fellowships. The ostensive goal of these fellowships was designed to foster greater diversity within the legal field.
Edward Blum founded the American Alliance for Equal Rights.
“Excluding students from these esteemed fellowships because they are the wrong race is unfair, polarizing and illegal,” Blum declared in a statement..
The lawsuits came at a time when there has been an increase in legal challenges to corporate diversity programs after the Supreme Court’s landmark affirmative action ruling Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, with companies such as Activision Blizzard, Kellogg and Gannett currently facing complaints.
Perkins Coie offers “diversity fellowships” that grant stipends of $15,000 to $25,000 and paid positions as summer associates. Such a position at prominent law firms can provide candidates full-time jobs once they graduate.
The applicants in question must belong to “a group historically underrepresented in the legal profession, including students of color, students who identify as LGBTQ+, and students with disabilities,” per Perkins Coie, which has 1,200 lawyers on staff in the US and Asia.
Morrison & Foerster has 1,000 lawyers on staff working across the globe. This law firm provides a similar program where blacks, Hispanics, Native Americans or members of the LGBT community can receive a fellowship. This fellowship features a paid summer-associate position and a $50,000 stipend.
The lawsuits claim that by restricting a candidate’s eligibility based on race, the fellowships violate Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a federal law enacted after the abolition of slavery during the American Civil War era. This law prohibits racial discrimination in private contracts.
Earlier this month, the American Alliance for Equal Rights filed a similar lawsuit against Atlanta-based venture capital fund Fearless Fund. In the lawsuit, the anti-affirmative action asserted that it illegally allowed only black women to be eligible to receive grants, which violated the contracting law.
Such organizations are desperately needed at a time when both the private and public organizations are pushing a thoroughly anti-white agenda. Complacency will just result in the dispossession of the Historic American Nation aka the descendants of the white Europeans who founded this great nation