Pressor Jacobson giving remarks to the Cornell Political Union.
Just over a week ago, on October 25th, Cornell Law Professor William Jacobson visited the Cornell Political Union (CPU) to deliver a speech on affirmative action. With two Supreme Court cases that will decide the future of affirmative action—Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard—being argued before the Court this week, the event was quite timely.
Jacobson, also the founder of the website Legal Insurrection, delivered his thirty-minute remarks to a packed house, drawing both CPU members and the general public. The Cornell Political Union is a nonpartisan debating society that brings speakers like Professor Jacobson to opine on political issues.
The speech began with a commentary on how race has been arbitrarily defined and categorized in America. Jacobson argued that we should “stop obsessing over something so vaguely and inconsistently defined like race.” He then moved on to discussing the prima facie prohibition of affirmative action under Cornell Policy 6.4 which, as he described, “provides that the university does not discriminate on the basis of protected status and among the statuses that it does not discriminate on or [sic] race, ethnic or national origin.”
Professor Jacobson continued to discuss how, beyond affirmative action, race-based discrimination has resulted in hiring and medical discrimination. Specifically referencing New York State’s Covid antiviral and antibody treatment distribution policy that prioritized people of some races over people of others.
CPU hosted the debate in anticipation of the aforementioned Supreme Court cases, which were argued this Monday. The cases could have far-reaching implications for university admissions, including overturning previous decisions that allowed for affirmative action to continue.
After Jacobson concluded his remarks, members of the Cornell Political Union took to the debate floor to share their thoughts. After the debate concluded, members of CPU voted in favor of Jacobson’s remarks on the resolution up for debate.
Disclosure: Mr. Reschini is also the Events Director of the Cornell Political Union
Correction: an earlier version misstated the subject of New York’s antiviral distribution policy as addressing the distribution of vaccines. The policy targeted the distribution of antivirals and antibody treatments, not vaccines.
