When the Supreme Court issued its affirmative action ban, it was immediately clear that the left wasn't going to give in without a fight. Now, a top law school has been caught trying to circumvent the court's ruling.
Columbia Law announced a short-lived, unprecedented admissions policy - which it has since scrapped - asking applicants to submit a 90-second video about their "personal strengths," the Washington Free Beacon reported.
While Columbia began requiring video statements from transfer students in May, it did not make the videos required for all students until after the Supreme Court's ban - raising alarm bells.
The school initially said the video statement "will allow applicants to provide the Admissions Committee with additional insight into their personal strengths." Some of the university's students were none too impressed by the clumsy stratagem.
"The timing is so suspect, I have to wonder, are they that dumb?" said a current Columbia Law student. "They’re not even trying to hide it."
Now, the school says the requirement was a "misunderstanding" after getting called out by the Washington Free Beacon.
"Video statements will not be required as part of the Fall 2024 J.D. application when it becomes available in September," the law school told the Free Beacon in a statement. "It was inadvertently listed on the Law School's website and has since been corrected."
The Supreme Court's popular decision to end affirmative action led to much wailing on the left - and raised concerns that colleges would devise workarounds to keep discriminating on the basis of race.
Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, said it's "hard to imagine a clearer pretextual work-around for the Supreme Court’s decision" than Columbia's video policy.
"There’s no reason the school would need a video, so the requirement of such a submission is powerful evidence of an intent to discriminate," he said.
Like other elite schools, Columbia had appeared to signal its next move following the Supreme Court's ruling - saying the school's commitment to "diversity" is "unwavering" as "we prepare to comply with the law," by which they apparently meant the opposite.
Clearly, the elite law schools are going to do everything they can to ignore the Supreme Court's ruling.
The importance of this issue - given the fact that the justice system is already being rigged against conservatives - can hardly be overstated.
