Season 3, Episode 30 (Show 134): Scrutinizing Affirmative Action – Special Guest Jeffrey Brenzel

July 19, 2023

Affirmative action takes the stage as the Court strikes down, in essence, the framework it had reluctantly and fitfully constructed over the past 50 years.  We bring an expert on board to help us help you decipher it – Jeff Brenzel, former Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale.

It’s time to discuss the Affirmative Action cases from Harvard and the University of North Carolina, and we have brought in an expert on college admissions – Jeff Brenzel, the former Dean of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale.  Jeff is so much more than that – he has taught at Yale as a lecturer in philosophy and humanities; is the former head of the Alumni Association, and is a current trustee at Morehouse College, to name some of his many hats.  He offers a perspective that is a perfect supplement to the legal analysis from Professor Amar, as we make our way through 237 pages of Supreme Court opinion, concurrences, and fiery dissents, not to mention Akhil’s scholarship on this subject over the decades.  It’s potentially a morass and we begin to find our way through it, to hopefully understand the stormy present and the uncertain future of college admissions.

Show Notes:

Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President And Fellows Of Harvard College

The opinion of the Court, from Chief Justice Roberts, along with concurrences from Justice Thomas, Justice Gorsuch, and Justice Kavanaugh; the principal dissent from Justices Kagan and Sotomayor, and a dissent from Justice Jackson (who took no part in the Harvard case), in the affirmative action cases.

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Bakke's Fate (1996)

The article by Professor Amar and Neal Katyal from the UCLA Law Review, 43:1745 (1996), which played a major role, it is believed, in affirmative action cases of the time, and still seems relevant to today’s issues and cases.

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Grand Goals, Hard Choices - Yale Alumni Magazine (2014)

Article by then-departing Dean Brenzel following his tenure as Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Yale; he reflects on a number of admissions topics, including diversity, despite the fact that the article was not in response to an affirmative action controversy.

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