Lawsuit: Meritocracy abandoned to hire transgender, gay, black faculty at Northwestern University

"Professor Volokh, however, is a white man, and he is neither homosexual nor transgender...."

A coalition of white and male professors is suing Northwestern University, accusing it of “consciously discriminating” in favor of women, trans people, and racial minorities at the expense of more highly qualified white male professors.

The plaintiff, “Faculty, Alumni, and Students Opposed to Racial Preferences” (FASORP) is a collective of professors and lawyers who seek to litigate against racial and gender preferences in higher education to help restore meritocracy.

The lawsuit cites three white male law professors applied to Northwestern. This includes First Amendment expert Eugene Volokh, Ernest A. Young of Duke University’s Law School, and Ilan Wurman, a distinguished professor at The University of Minnesota Law School.

“As a result of the mandate, Northwestern University School of Law refuses to even consider hiring white male faculty candidates with stellar credentials, while it eagerly hires candidates with mediocre and undistinguished records who check the proper diversity boxes.”

“For decades, left-wing faculty and administrators have been thumbing their noses at federal anti-discrimination statutes and openly discriminating on account of race and sex when appointing professors,” they alleged

How does Northwestern violate federal law?

Northwestern does this by “hiring women and racial minorities with mediocre and undistinguished records over white men who have better credentials, better scholarship, and better teaching ability,” they allege.

“But this is prohibited by federal law, which bans universities that accept federal funds from discriminating on account of race or sex.”

“University faculty and administrators think they can flout these anti-discrimination statutes with impunity because they are rarely sued….But now the jig is up,” the lawsuit states.

Eugene Volokh— a law professor for 20 years — is one academic who was hurt by the anti-meritocratic and pro-woman and pro-trans hiring practices, the suit alleges. For those thinking that Volokh is sue happy or wants to make a political statement, he has disclaimed affiliation with the lawsuit’s originators in an email sent to me on Tuesday.

According to the suit, Volokh’s accomplishments exceed those of nearly every professor currently on the Northwestern Law School faculty. Professor Volokh, however, is a white man, and he is “neither homosexual nor transgender,” the lawsuit alleges.

“The idea of appointing Professor Volokh was supported by many of Northwestern’s public-law faculty. But the appointments committee that year was chaired by former dean Dan Rodriguez, who repeatedly pushed for race-based hirings as dean and refused to even invite Professor Volokh to interview.”

Eugene Volokh, First Amendment Expert, Interviewed on PBS

“Because of Rodriguez’s intransigence, Professor Volokh’s candidacy was never even presented to the Northwestern faculty for a vote, while candidates with mediocre and undistinguished records were interviewed and received offers because of their preferred demographic characteristics,” the lawsuit alleges.

Reduced Standards for Minorities?

One beneficiary of affirmative action is the black female law professor named Destiny Perry. She graduated from Northwestern Law School near the bottom of her class. And this isn’t the only lawsuit to challenge her credentials.

The lawsuit notes her “abysmal academic record as a student at the law school.”

“Several faculty members expressed concerns that Peery was unqualified for an academic appointment and incapable of producing serious scholarship,” the lawsuit notes.

“But then-Dean Dan Rodriguez, during a faculty meeting, threatened to withhold bonuses from any faculty member who would vote against Peery or attempt to thwart her appointment,” the lawsuit alleged.

“Peery was hired because she is a black female, as numerous faculty members explicitly stated when discussing her candidacy.”

“Peery would never even have been considered for a faculty appointment at Northwestern if she had been white or a member of a different race, and Peery was hired over white male candidates who were vastly more capable and qualified than she was.”

Rodriguez warned faculty that they shouldn’t be sending emails or commenting on school listserves about the affirmative action, likely because he knew a public-records request could easily open Pandora’s box.

“Dean Rodriguez knew that this discriminatory hiring edict was illegal and would expose the university to lawsuits. So he ordered the Northwestern faculty 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.”

Here’s an interesting chart from the lawsuit☝️☝️☝️

This report was brought to you by Toni Airaksinen, Senior Editor of Liberty Affair and a journalist based in Delray Beach, Florida. Follow her on Substack and on X @Toni_Airaksinen. Buy Her A Coffee Here.