Worth Knowing, Probably Not Quite Threadworthy 8/10

[SVPete]

Race Discrimination in Admissions Suit Against U Washington Can Go Forward

https://reason.com/volokh/2026/08/08/race-discrimination-in-admissions-suit-against-u-washington-can-go-forward/

From Zhong v. Univ. of Wash. Bd. of Regents, decided yesterday by Judge James Robart (W.D. Wash.):

This civil rights action arises from the University's rejection of Stanley's application to enroll in its undergraduate computer science program in Fall 2023. Plaintiffs assert that "Defendants have engaged in systemic racial discrimination against Asian American applicants" by requiring them "to meet higher standards of academic and extracurricular achievement than applicants of other races." …

Plaintiffs represent that Stanley is a resident of California and a highly qualified applicant for undergraduate admission. Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that Stanley was among the top students academically at his high school, scored well on standardized college admissions exams, and "took on leadership roles in a variety of academic and volunteer organizations." Stanley is a "self-taught programmer" who earned "top honors in some of the world's most competitive coding contests[.]" ... When Stanley was 13 years old, Google offered him a full-time software engineer interview before learning that he was ineligible for employment based on his age. Just before his 18th birthday, Stanley successfully re-applied for a software engineering position at Google. When Plaintiffs filed suit, Stanley worked for Google as a software engineer. ... …
...
The court concludes that Stanley has plausibly alleged racial discrimination in the
University's admissions process…. Here, the [School of Computer Science & Engineering] DEIA Plan describes a plan to "[m]easure the percentage of domestic Black, Hispanic, and American Indian/ Alaska Native, Hawaiian/Pacific Islander undergraduates and, by year 5, evaluate whether the percentage is at least 15% (the UW-Seattle average)." Similarly, the [School's] BPC [Departmental Broadening Participation in Computing] Plan states that one of its six "'stretch goals' for the next 5 years" is to "ncrease the percentage of domestic BHN [Black, Hispanic, Native] undergraduates to the UW-Seattle average[.]"

These documents, taken together, plausibly support Stanley's claims. In sum, viewing the complaint and incorporated documents and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to Stanley, the court concludes that he has sufficiently alleged that race is considered as a factor in the University's admissions process to achieve racial balancing.

While this ruling bodes ill for U Washington, it "merely" allows the lawsuit to go to trial. It does not decide the case. If U Washington is wise, they will settle, so as to avoid the potential for a lot of embarrassment in discovery. I would not accuse academia of being wise.

BTW, Stanley Zhong's high school is one of the top high schools in the US. Zhong was rejected because of his ethnicity, not his qualifications (which are off any existing chart).

[SVPete]

Strange But True: Journalists Never Seem to Ask Gun-Grabbers Why Their Predictions of Blood and Death Never Come True

https://www.shootingnewsweekly.com/gun-control/strange-but-true-journalists-never-seem-to-ask-gun-grabbers-why-their-predictions-of-more-blood-and-death-never-come-true/

As you might expect, our friends in the gun control industry aren’t happy about ATF’s proposed rule changes. They have a problem, though. Crime in America is at historical lows and continues to fall. At the same time, gun sales remain strong and more people are carrying than ever before. Even The New York Times ran a favorable piece Friday on an armed citizen who saved lives by opening fire on a spree shooter.

This presents a real problem for the civilian disarmament industrial complex. They only have so many tools to use in order to get their names in the media and continue to raise more cash. Their repeated apocalyptic predictions of soaring violence and chaos in the streets couldn’t have been more off the mark.

Still, that’s really all they know how to do. Stirring up fear and panic is their stock-in-trade, so they tend to fall back on it no matter what the reality IRL may be. They need to keep themselves in the media and appear to remain relevant. And member of the media, who almost unanimously agree with them on policy, are always there to help.

But here’s a caution for the jernalizmists out there. If you get the chance to talk to people from Brady, Giffords, Everytown, or similar orgs, you are being completely negligent in your job (or outright biased) if they spout more garbage like they did in the tweet above and you don’t press them on why all of their prior predictions that crime would rise have been wrong. Sometimes hilariously wrong.

1. They made similar predictions of doom after Bruen. Homicide rates have fallen to record lows.

2. Every time a state passes constitutional carry, they say that state will see a surge in homicides, the most high profile example being Florida. Again, it didn’t happen.

3. These orgs also claimed Heller would lead to devastation. Instead, homicide fell until several years later with Ferguson.

4. When NFA taxes were eliminated for certain items a year ago, they said that would lead to more violent crime too. Nope.

5. In April of last year, they said Trump administration funding cuts to various community violence intervention nonprofits would “lead to an immediate surge in violence. There is no question that people will die and communities will suffer.” Didn’t happen.

6. If you go back far enough, gun control activists claimed the rise of shall-issue permitting would lead to crime surges. ...

The MSM have considerable experience in continuing to Chicken-Little despite their predictions always proving false: forty years of Warmistas, "We only have 10 years left;" the Arctic cap will be gone; polar bears will starve and go extinct; Reagan will cause WW3; new Ice Age coming; mass famine coming in the 1970s ... . MSM-folk won't challenge hoplophobes' Chicken-Littling.