The Center for Individual Freedom's Assistant General Counsel, Reid Alan Cox, took on the issue of race-based college and law school admissions and, most notably, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, at a panel discussion held Monday night at the Georgetown University Law Center.� Panelists also included Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page, Center for Equal Opportunity General Counsel Roger Clegg, Attorney Goodwin Liu, Attorney and Consultant Sophia Nelson, and Georgetown University Law Professor Neal Katyal, who served as the moderator of the event.

According to the Rev. Jackson, "the issue of affirmative action" cannot be separated "from the issue of slavery" because "years of racial denials rooted in law" must be remedied.� "There must be some remedy for parity," Jackson asserted.� "Reparations would be -- maybe perhaps -- a fitting remedy.� Affirmative action is a conservative remedy."

But Cox noted that such race-based preferential admissions raise serious constitutional concerns since "no justice on the Supreme Court has ever found racial diversity to be a compelling interest" important enough to merit an exception to the Constitution's command of colorblind equality.

Cox also explained that the types of affirmative action pursued by university admissions offices are clearly unconstitutional because they place a predominant weight on race to the exclusion of all other factors.� "An [admissions] interest solely based on race would not be ... compelling" enough to overcome constitutional equal protection, he said in noting that the Court's landmark Regents of the University of California v. Bakke ruling makes such discriminatory policies illegal.

The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in two cases challenging the race-based admission policies to the undergraduate and law schools of the University of Michigan.� The Center filed an amicus brief arguing that affirmative action policies run afoul of the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of "equal protection of the laws."

To download a copy of the amicus brief the Center filed, click here.