Accuracy in Academia just issued their monthly report, which covers how race-based preferences hurt minority students and could force students away from the practice of law.

Race-based college admission preferences actually hurt minority applicants, three members of the U. S. Civil Rights Commission allege. “There is a lot of research that shows that race-based admissions are backfiring,” one of the commissioners, Gail Heriot, said at the August 14, 2012 bloggers’ briefing at the Heritage Foundation.

Heriot signed onto an amicus brief in support of Abigail Noel Fisher in the case of Fisher v. the University of Texas that the U. S. Supreme Court will examine in October. Heriot was joined in the brief by co-commissioners Todd Gaziano and Peter Kirsanow. Fisher alleges that she was squeezed out of a slot at UT Austin to make way for candidates admitted under race-based preferences.

Gaziano also joined Heriot at the Heritage Foundation, where he is a scholar. “Who is losing out?” Gaziano asked.

The amicus brief they signed onto was written by their counsel of record—Anthony T. Caso of the Chapman University School of Law. Caso, in the brief, shows some of the evidence that the commissioners relied upon, data which the “experts” interviewed by media outlets covering the story rarely offer, a factual treasure trove of academic studies that goes back several decades.

For example:“The grades earned by African-American students at the [elite schools we studied] often reflect their struggles to succeed academically in highly competitive academic settings,” former college presidents William G. Bowen and Derek Bok wrote in their pro-affirmative action book Shape of the River. Conversely, at the Heritage bloggers’ briefing, Heriot asserted that “Students admitted to MIT on preferences might do better elsewhere.”

The report notes that Caso offers may other details that show race preferences are harming those they are suppose to help, including information on how minority students in law programs are impacted:

“The black and Hispanic students were more likely to be attending an elite school that spends little time on subjects covered on the bar exam and delves instead into more abstract and esoteric legal issues,” writes Caso.

Caso also reported that are fewer African-American students than anyone would prefer with the entering credentials necessary for admission on a color-blind basis to the most elite law schools,and there were many more who would do well at mid-tier schools—”if they were only attending those schools.”