Law Schools

Law Schools Prepare For Their First Salvo Of Post-Affirmative Action Applications

Get out there and apply!

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Group hands on top of each other of diverse multi-ethnic and multicultural people.Diversity people. Concept of teamwork community and cooperation.Diverse culture.Racial equality.OnenessWe are at the beginning of an answer to a very pressing question: how will law schools respond to the functional end of affirmative action? The SFFA v. Harvard decision makes it clear that admissions cannot use race as a factor — positive or otherwise — when determining which aspiring students make the shift from applicant to acceptee… without directly prohibiting students from discussing their race or how it has impacted their lives, motivations, and aspirations to earn the title esquire. How will students and universities walk the line? The first step will be with modified essay questions. Schools are going to have a lot of material to sift through once applications open on September 1st.  From Reuters:

The Supreme Court’s June 29 ruling, which effectively prohibited affirmative action policies long used to raise the number of underrepresented minority students on campuses, specified that essays and personal statements in which candidates discuss their race or background are acceptable, said Gisele Joachim, vice president for law school engagement at the Law School Admission Council.

The U.S. Department of Education underscored that point on Aug. 14 when it released new guidance to colleges and universities clarifying that applicants are free to discuss how their race has affected their lives.

Since the ruling, administrators and students have been thrown for a loop. Should I scrap my diversity statement? Should I even apply? Thankfully, schools have released their essay questions and they provide ample opportunities for students to give answers that differentiate them from the applicant pool. Questions like:

  • What does the rule of law mean to you, and what special background or experience do you have that may help you contribute to its advancement or that underscores its importance to you personally?

  • How has the world you came from positively shaped who you are today?

  • Please address any information that you believe your application would be incomplete without and that sheds more light on your unique potential to succeed in the J.D. program and contribute to the University community and the field or profession.

These essay prompts were compiled from different schools by Mike Spivey — you can trace how different schools have changed their diversity and personal statement prompts by looking at his well-organized and updated blog.

It is probably too early for crisis averted celebrations. Even if the essay prompts are facially race neutral, there are deep pockets ready and willing to sue any institution that doesn’t cater its admissions and employment to white men. The Harvard/UNC decision is being used to threaten initiatives attempting to recruit women and law firm applicants — hell, even law students on law review.

If the admissions for this wave of student applicants pan out prior to how classes broke down prior to the functional overruling of affirmative action, you should expect to see litigation accusing schools of using proxies of race to backdoor undesirables women and minorities into the class room. They should tread lightly though; I doubt that the Republicans fighting for “civil rights” want the consequences of their litigation to roost too close to home — legacy admissions are already being threatened after all.

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Law Schools’ Admission Essays Revamped After Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling [Reuters]

Earlier: The Slippery Slope Of Ending Affirmative Action Has Moved On To Its Next Target: Women And ‘Proxies For Diversity’

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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