There are questions that can’t be asked on a job application, such as what is your race.* There are questions that can.

Regardless of personal demographic characteristics, UC San Diego has a strong interest in ensuring that all candidates hired for faculty appointments share our commitment to excellence, access, and Principles of Community.

All candidates applying for faculty appointments at UC San Diego are required to submit a personal statement on their contributions to diversity. The purpose of the statement is to identify candidates who have the professional skills, experience, and/or willingness to engage in activities that will advance our campus diversity and equity goals.

The question isn’t whether you support the “campus diversity and equity goals,” but rather more specific. Continue reading →

I’ve been pretty harsh on the ACLU here. There were clues that I should have seen, but didn’t. An upcoming article in The Nation, however, has enlightened me, and now I realize the error of my criticism.

People Power emerged out of the ACLU’s sudden, explosive growth in the wake of Trump’s election. In Arizona, statewide membership jumped from 5,500 to more than 22,000; nationwide, it soared from 450,000 to 1.84 million. Followers on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram quadrupled. Donations skyrocketed, from less than $5 million annually in online contributions in recent years to $86 million in the year after the 2016 elections. Meanwhile, the ACLU went on a hiring spree—116 new positions at national offices around the country. Many new staffers are supporting People Power, which now has 250,000 members in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

People Power. It’s not just a cute slogan to suck in donations, but an entirely new direction. Continue reading →

Dahlia Lithwick tries to draw a straight line from Michelle Wolf’s comedy at the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, which every president attends except this one, to the Supreme Court.

And at the Supreme Court, during last week’s oral arguments in the travel ban case, Trump v. Hawaii, we were transported to a bizarre world in which this president was discussed as if he were a normal head of state.

At stake here is the presumption of regularity, the presumption that the president is acting in good faith. Lithwick, and many others in the media, have decided that this president is unworthy of the presumption. Continue reading →