Our Articles

Colleges Should Take 'Confirmative Action' in Admissions
by Lani Guinier

A Modest Proposal for Voter Empowerment
Lani Guinier finds that South Africa, only six years out of apartheid, is more advanced in terms of practicing democratic principles than the United States 150 years after slavery and challenges us to reckon with the fact that nationally, 14 % of African American men do not have the right to vote, yet they are still counted to boost the political clout of rural while legislators. Go there now…or to the PDF version.

Confirmative Action
At the dawn of a new millennium, America’s quest to overcome the effects of centuries of racial inequality is on a collision course with its even more pervasive preoccupation with technology of all kinds, particularly quantifiable measurements of that all-American social good, “success.” Go there now.... of to the PDF version.

Leadership from the Bottom Up
While campaigning for the presidency, Texas Governor George W. Bush frequently touted the state’s successful “10 percent plan” as a model of inclusion and an example of his leadership in education reform. Lani Guinier and Gerald Torres argue, however, that rather than lead, Bush just got out of the way. Go there now…or to the PDF version.

Making Every Vote Count
For years many of us have called for a national conversation about what it means to be a multiracial democracy. We have enumerated the glaring flaws inherent in our winner-take-all form of voting, which has produced a steady decline in voter participation, under representation of racial minorities in office, lack of meaningful competition and choice in most elections and the general failure of politics to mobilize, inform and inspire half the eligible electorate. Go there now... or to the PDF version.

The Ballot, Via the Courthouse
CAMBRIDGE,Mass. What began as judicial overreaching may be a clarion call for major democratic reform. Some legal experts already argue that last week's United States Supreme Court decision, though heavily criticized for deciding an election, could help open the local courthouse doors to election reform. Go there now... or to the PDF version.

What We Must Overcome
On December 12, 2000, in Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court selected the next president when, in the name of George Bush's rights to equal protection of the laws, it stopped the recounting of votes. The Court’s decision – and the colossal legal fight that preceded it –put the values, and not just the mechanics, of American democracy front and center. Excoriated at the time for deciding an election, the Court’s stout reading of equal protection could nevertheless become an invitation, not just to future litigation but also to a citizens’ movement for genuine participatory democracy. At minimum, the Court’s surprising and heavy-handed intervention should now spark a real debate about the rules of democracy on an even larger scale than we previously imagined. Go there now ..... or to the PDF version.

MBTA Must Stop Harassing Black Kids
THE MBTA HAS zero tolerance for laughing. If you are caught laughing out loud at or near an MBTA stop, you can be arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. Zero tolerance means no laughing, no running, and not even minding your own business while waiting for a bus. Go there now ..... or to the PDF version.