Richard Sander on SCOTUS Oral Arguments: Affirmative Action and Discrimination against Asian Americans at Harvard and UNC

Richard Sander is Jesse Dukeminier Professor at UCLA Law School. AB Harvard, JD, PhD (Economics) Northwestern.

Sander has studied the structure and effects of law school admissions policies. He coined the term "Mismatch" to describe the negative consequences resulting from large admissions preferences.

Rick and Steve discuss recent oral arguments at the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions vs Harvard College and Students For Fair Admissions vs the University of North Carolina.

0:00 Rick’s experience at the Supreme Court

4:11 Rick’s impression of the oral arguments

16:24 Analyzing the court’s questions

29:09 The negative impact on Asian American students

34:41 Shifting sentiment on affirmative action

40:04 Three potential outcomes for Harvard and UNC cases

44:00 Possible reasons for conservatives to be optimistic

50:31 Final thoughts on experiencing oral arguments in person

52:12 Mismatch theory

56:31 The future of higher education

Resources

Background on the Harvard case:

https://infoproc.blogspot.com/2022/01/supreme-court-to-take-up-harvard-unc.html

Transcripts:

https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2022/20-1199_6537.pdf

https://www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2022/21-707_m64n.pdf

Music used with permission from Blade Runner Blues Livestream improvisation by State Azure.

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Steve Hsu is Professor of Theoretical Physics and of Computational Mathematics, Science, and Engineering at Michigan State University. Previously, he was Senior Vice President for Research and Innovation at MSU and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Science at the University of Oregon. Hsu is a startup founder (SafeWeb, Genomic Prediction, Othram) and advisor to venture capital and other investment firms. He was educated at Caltech and Berkeley, was a Harvard Junior Fellow, and has held faculty positions at Yale, the University of Oregon, and MSU.

Please send any questions or suggestions to [email protected] or Steve on Twitter @hsu_steve.