Current Cases
Case Status: Pending
Ultima Services Corporation v. U.S. Department of Agriculture et al.
March 5th 2020CIR is representing Ultima Services Corporation, a company that can no longer compete for contracts that make up the core of its business because its owner, Celeste Bennett, is the wrong race. For more than fifteen years, Ultima has contracted with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), a subdivision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture...
Timeline
Over the last thirty years, CIR has won massive civil rights victories that no one thought possible, successfully overturning race and sex preferences in schools, government employment, and government contracting
Feb 1992
Lamprecht v. FCC
One of the Center for Individual Rights’ first clients was Thomas Lamprecht, a 28-year-old radio broadcaster whose application for a license had been denied by the FCC because he was a man.
Mar 1996
Hopwood v. Texas
In 1996, CIR won a historic victory in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals case Hopwood v. Texas. The Fifth Circuit ruling barred all use of racial preferences in university admissions in the states under that court’s jurisdiction.
Apr 1997
Coalition for Economic Equality v. Wilson
CIR intervened in a case levied by liberal interest groups against the enforcement of Proposition 209, the California Civil Rights Initiative. The CCRI, which won a majority vote in 1996 referendum, banned the use of race and gender preferences in state university admissions, employment, and contracting.
Jun 2003
Gratz v. Bollinger; Grutter v. Bollinger
In 2003, the Supreme Court decided the landmark cases of Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger. CIR successfully urged the Supreme Court to strike down the racial preferences system at the University of Michigan’s College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, but the Court left the door open for universities to continue using racial preferences under narrow circumstances and allowed the University of Michigan’s law school to continue its practice of utilizing race-based admissions.
Sep 2006
Operation King's Dream v. Ward Connerly
The Center for Individual Rights represented the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which was designed to prohibit preferential treatment based on race, gender, color, ethnicity, or national origin for public employment, education, or contracting, against a last-minute effort by opponents to keep it off the November 2006 ballot by challenging its legality under the federal Voting Rights Act.
Dec 2008
NG v. New York City Department of Education
The Center for Individual Rights filed a class action lawsuit challenging the New York City Department of Education’s policy of excluding Asian American and white students from a test preparation course because of their race.
Dec 2013
U.S. v. New York Board of Education
CIR represented a group of New York City schools custodial engineers in a landmark challenge to efforts by the federal government to retroactively redistribute employment seniority on the basis of race and gender, based solely on statistical imbalances between an employer’s workforce and the labor pool at large.
Jan 2014
Dynalantic v. Department of Defense
CIR represented a small Long Island company whose ability to compete (and even stay in business) was hobbled by the federal government’s extensive use of race preferences in awarding government contracts.
Apr 2014
Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action v. Russell et al.; Russell v. Brandon; Schuette v. BAMN
Unlike Gratz and Grutter, this case was not about the constitutionality of racial preferences. It was rather about the ability of Michigan voters to govern themselves within constitutional parameters. The Supreme Court has held that racial preferences are permitted under the constitution, but it has never held that they are required. CIR maintained that what the constitution does not prohibit is left to the discretion of the voters.
Past Cases
Case Status: Settled on Favorable Terms.
Cocina Cultura LLC v. State of Oregon et al.
November 20th 2020CIR has filed suit against the State of Oregon, Oregon’s Department of Administrative Services, and two Oregon non-profits, which established a coronavirus relief fund that exclusively provides federal grant money to black applicants, in violation of the Constitution and federal anti-discrimination law...
Case Status: Case settled on favorable terms
Swanigan v. University of Connecticut
June 4th 2014CIR is representing Pamela Swanigan, a graduate student in English at UConn. The suit alleges that Swanigan was not allowed to compete for a highly prestigious, merit-based scholarship despite being the top applicant the year she applied. Instead, Swanigan was routed into an academically less prestigious Multicultural Scholars Award, which is designed to increase diversity. This happened solely because of her race -- she is both African American and white...
Case Status: Victory. City agreed to eliminate racial quota.
Rau and Katapadi v. NYC Dept. of Ed.
January 14th 2008CIR filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York challenging the use of separate, lower admissions standards for white students at prestigious Mark Twain Intermediate School, a magnet school located in Coney Island, NY...
Case Status: Victory. Case settled on favorable terms.
Ng v. New York City Dept. of Education
November 19th 2007CIR filed a class action lawsuit challenging the New York City Department of Education ’s policy of excluding Asian American and white students from a test preparation course because of their race...
Case Status: Victory
Michigan Civil Rights Initiative Litigation: BAMN v. Russell et al.; Russell v. Brandon; Schuette v. BAMN
December 18th 2006CIR represented Eric Russell in his defense of the constitutionality of a state constitutional amendment sponsored by Ward Connerly and Jennifer Gratz to ban the use of racial preferences in state programs...
Case Status: Victory. Case settled on favorable terms
Smith v. Virginia Commonwealth University
September 26th 2006CIR successfully challenged a race-exclusive summer journalism workshop...
