The Equal Justice Society and UCLA School of Law hosted a Symposium on the labor and employment impact of California’s anti-affirmative action law — Prop. 209. Several research papers were presented, including:

A Vision Fulfilled? The Impact of Proposition 209 on Equal Opportunity for Women Business Enterprises
Monique W. Morris, Michael D. Sumner, Jessica Z. Borja

Affirmative Action Programs and Business Ownership among Minorities and Women
Robert Fairlie, Justin Marion

Diversity Management in America and the Affirmative Action Debate in France
Christine Pauwels

The Effectiveness of Affirmative Action in Highway Procurement
Justin Marion

Free to Compete? Measuring the Impact of Proposition 209 on Minority Business Enterprises
Monique W. Morris, Sirithon Thanasombat, Michael D. Sumner, Sara Pierre, Jessica Z. Borja

The Impact of State Affirmative Procurement Policies on Minority- and Women- Owned Businesses in Five States
Tim Lohrentz

Minority Preferences In Public Contracts
Christopher M. Westhoff, Jess J. Gonzalez

Using Race or Ethnicity as Factors in Employee and Contractor Outreach
David Benjamin Oppenheimer

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In related news, UCLA Professors Cheryl Harris and Walter Allen wrote an Op-Ed in the National Law Journal highlighting the flaws in the “mismatch thesis”, which purports to demonstrate empirically that “affirmative action in law schools hurts black law students because it puts them in schools where their credentials are below the median; consequently, they cannot academically compete.” Professors Harris and Allen note that the “mismatch thesis” has not been subject to peer review and numerous questions remain about the accuracy of the thesis.
The Equal Justice Society published a point-by-point response to Pr. Sander’s 2004 article, which appeared in the Stanford Law Review. Other responses can be found at http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/research.html.