Heres why Californians should sue for reparations for DEI

Californians should consider a lawsuit for reparations —  on behalf of victims of DEI.Last week, the federal Department of Justice, led by Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet K.Dhillon, joined a lawsuit against UCLA medical school accusing it of admitting students on the basis of race, not academic qualifications.

As students and parents should know, race-based admissions violate California law.Back in 1978, UC Davis medical school rejected highly qualified student Allan Bakke, a person of pallor, on the basis of race.Bakke sued and won his case, but California continued to admit students on the basis of race and ethnicity.

During the 1990s, the people pushed back. The California Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), known as Proposition 209, appeared on the November 1996 ballot.It was the project of California State University, Hayward (now Cal State East Bay) professors Glynn Custred and Thomas Wood, backed by University of California regent Ward Connerly.CCRI ended racial and ethnic preferences in state education, employment, and contracting.

California voters passed Prop.209 by a margin of  54% to 46%.

The disaster that opponents predicted never occurred.As Hoover Institution scholar Thomas Sowell showed in Intellectuals and Race, minority enrollment increased at other University of California campuses after Prop.209.In addition, the number of African-American and Hispanic students graduating from the UC system went up, including a 55 percent increase in those graduating in four years with a GPA of 3.5 or higher.Contrary to popular belief, CCRI did not end “affirmative action.” State universities could still cast the widest possible net, and help students on an economic basis.

Even so, critics of Prop.209 claimed that it harmed “diversity.”In bureaucratic parlance, “diversity” means that all institutions must reflect the racial or ethnic proportions of the population.

If they don’t, the reason must be deliberate discr...