Argues that the Supreme Court was right in not making a decision in the DeFunis v. Odegaard case regarding the right of the University of Washington Law School to identify applicants for admission by race and give preferential treatment to "minority" applicants. Emphasizes the need for "sharply defined and fully canvassed legal…

Based on the question of whether racial preference and quotas to advance the educational opportunities of certain racial and ethnic minorities are compatible with the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, a case against reference to race is presented in light of the DeFunis v. Odegaard case. (JT)

Since the 1974 Supreme Court dicta in "Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.," many courts have held that statement of opinion is constitutionally protected. However, statements that appear to be opinion based on undisclosed facts or knowledge not generally known to the public can be an exception. For instance, courts have protected specific…

During the past 150 years U.S. courts have demonstrated a special protectiveness toward academics and academic institutions. Academic freedom was not a concern when the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment were drafted and is not mentioned in the "Federalist Papers." However, decisions by a series of Supreme Court justices led to…

Academic freedom, collegiality, and tenure are addressed with focus on how collective bargaining affects them. This material is intended to give college and university attorneys a feel for the challenges and problems that collective bargaining has brought to academia. Three sections look at the following: (1) academic freedom (what it is, academic…

A new bill, H. R. 1984, a comprehensive legislative approach to privacy issues, would regulate the uses and sources, retention, storage, and handling of personal information in private industry--including colleges and universities. The author explores the issues applicable to higher education and makes proposals that reflect its concerns.…

Only after the Supreme Court has made clear that experimentation with racially discriminatory programs is not permissible will there be the impetus to develop admission procedures that are both nondiscriminatory and humanitarian. (Author/EB)

Examines three areas in which legislatures have attempted to interfere in what courts have come to perceive as "exclusively higher education affairs" in those states with constitutionally mandated higher education governing bodies that have a legal status equal to that of the legislative and executive branches of government. (Author/IRT)

The application of Title IX and the HEW regulation to intercollegiate sports is described, and the relationships among Title IX, the equal protection doctrine, and the proposed equal rights amendment to the Constitution are assessed. (LBH)

Advises student newspaper staffs of their First Amendment rights, cautions against potentially dangerous practices, and tells what newspaper staffs can do to protect their rights and avoid legal problems. (GW)

A comment on two court cases gives an overview of the eleventh-amendment analysis, used by some federal courts in suits against state colleges and universities, that argues that the institutions are alter-egos of the state and independent to face suit in federal court. (MSE)

Presents a speech which discusses private funding for government operations, secret policies, and the doctrine of plausible denial. States that the Iran-Contra affair illustrates the failure of the educational system to educate patriotic, intelligent persons in the nation's most fundamental constitutional arrangements, such as the appropriations…

The U. S. Constitution's treatment of women and blacks is generating heated controversy among historians, with some scholars charging that its framers ignored those groups and that subsequent reformers have gained too little for them, too late. (MSE)

Herbert Storing taught students at the University of Chicago about the Constitution by using a textual rather than the usual thematic basis. Students read, discussed, and analyzed the entire Constitution. This textual approach serves to undermine the dominant belief that the Constitution is only what the judges say it is. (RM)