Solicitor General Gets An Ethics Waiver

For John, BLUF:  Ethics is a tricty area.  You might think it is unethical, but someone else might say it is necessary for a larger justice requirement.  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Biden’s top Supreme Court lawyer granted ethics waiver to argue for race-based college admissions

From The College Fix, by Ms Margaret Peppiatt, of Franciscan University of Stuebenville, 14 JANUARY 2022.

Here is the lede plus two:

The Department of Justice has granted U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar an ethics waiver, permitting the former Harvard professor to support race-based admissions in a Supreme Court case involving Harvard University.

Prelogar, who taught at Harvard Law School in the fall of 2020, was nominated for Solicitor General in August 2021 and confirmed by the Senate that October.  Under the Biden Ethics Pledge, Prelogar was prohibited from working on a court case relating to her former employer until two years after her appointment.

But the ethics waiver releases her to argue the case before the Supreme Court.

This is a two-for.  First is the ethics waiver.  Since the law suit is against the President and Fellows of Harvard College the waiver seems a little iffy.

Then there is the nature of the case, racial discrimination in college admissions.

In Students for Fair Admissions, Asian-American students argues Harvard discriminated against them in admissions policies based on race, violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

I am of the opinion that Harvard switched from discriminating against Jews to discriminating against Asians.  In my mind, tainted by my belief in meritochracy, this kind of discrimination is unfair and un-American.  A period of quotas to reverse racial discrimination seems not unreasonable, but as a long term policy it seems wrong.  And, it seems counter-productive.  We should wish our best minds trained in our best institutions.

All that said, since the Biden Administaration has decided to fight on the side of Discrimination, they need a good Lawyer.  Perhaps Ms Elizabeth Prelogar represents the best available.  After all, she did teach this sort of thing (Ms Prelogar taught the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy Workshop) at Harvard Law School.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff