Conservative group seeks to revive hiring bias case against Northwestern law school

By Karen Sloan

Feb 24 (Reuters) - A conservative organization is seeking to revive its lawsuit against Northwestern University alleging its law school discriminates against white men in faculty hiring, after a federal judge dismissed the case in January.

Faculty, Alumni, & Students Opposed to Racial Preferences (FASORP) on Friday appealed that ruling to the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. FASORP is represented by prominent conservative attorney Jonathan Mitchell and by America First Legal, which was founded by Stephen Miller, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mitchell did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. A Northwestern spokesperson declined to comment.

A recent string of lawsuits against law schools alleging discrimination against white faculty and students—filed in the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision barring the consideration of race in college admissions—have found little success in court so far.

A Philadelphia judge in August dismissed a suit brought by University of Pennsylvania law professor Amy Wax, who alleged the university had discriminated against her when it had sanctioned her for her controversial statements about race and was quicker to discipline white people under its free speech policy while overlooking similar conduct by racial minorities. Wax has appealed.

In May 2024, a federal judge in Manhattan dismissed a race and sex discrimination lawsuit challenging the selection process for New York University School of Law’s flagship law review, saying the anonymous white male plaintiff lacked standing to sue and that his complaint lacked facts to support his allegations. The plaintiff was represented by Mitchell and America First Legal.

FASORP also sued the Michigan Law Review for discrimination in 2025 but voluntarily dismissed the case in October.

Conservative groups have seen more success with suits challenging bar association scholarship programs for minority law students, however. The State Bar of Wisconsin in 2024 modified the parameters of a diversity program for law students after a conservative legal advocacy group sued, claiming the program discriminates based on race.

The American Bar Association in November altered a longstanding scholarship program aimed at boosting law student diversity by eliminating requirements that applicants must come from “ethnic minority” or “underrepresented racial” groups, after it was sued by the American Alliance for Equal Rights. That group is led by anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, the architect of the 2023 Supreme Court affirmative action case.

FASORP first sued Chicago's Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in July 2024, alleging it refused to consider hiring white male faculty candidates with “stellar credentials” while hiring other “mediocre” candidates from diverse racial and gender backgrounds.

But U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis found that FASORP had failed to identify any members with standing to challenge the law school’s entry-level faculty hiring and had failed to state any “plausible claims” of discrimination in lateral faculty hiring.

FASORP has not yet laid out its appellate arguments to the court.

Read more:

Northwestern law school defeats lawsuit alleging anti-white faculty hiring

ABA drops 'minority' requirement from law student scholarship amid lawsuit