The Outstater

July 17, 2026

Hooray for Rokita, Braun

TWO MORE OF THE ISSUES in our latest “Indiana Mandate” were taken up this week: The U.S. House wisely chose a single time standard and, more importantly, Indiana rejected socially ruinous affirmative action.

Todd Rokita, Indiana Attorney General, issued a formal opinion stating that race and sex-based components of state contracting programs are unconstitutional. Relying on this opinion, Gov. Mike Braun announced the end of the Diversity Business Enterprises Program, replacing it with a colorblind, merit-based system. Now, let us hope this common sense can be applied to the state’s university system.

It is an irony that a nation built on the principle that “all men are created equal” would develop tiers of citizenship. The 1964 Civil Rights Act, as it morphed into perpetual affirmative action, became in effect a second constitution. No thoughtful person of any race or sex could imagine that such preferential treatment would end well. The writers of the Constitution would approve of the recent reversal of this drift by the U.S. Supreme Court, the institution they created for just such a purpose. 

A majority of Americans positively view diversity in their schools and places of work, yet they object to affirmative action as a means to achieve it. Depending on the poll, between 65 and 85 percent oppose using race as a criterion for school and job admittance. The outlook for the nation is grim if most of us are frustrated by the unjust requirements of diversity initiatives and the others determined to ever strengthen the use of government and corporate power to institutionalize them.

The economist Thomas Sowell observed that affirmative action is not simply a transfer of benefits or preference from one group to another. There also can be a net loss when, as a result, both groups do less than their best, and a zero-sum game becomes a negative-sum game. 

Looking at data from Cornell University, where Sowell once taught, he explained: “If Harvard admitted students according to a purely academic index, blacks would make up 0.76 percent of admissions rather than the actual 15 percent. Boosting the former number not the latter should be the primary concern of public policy.”

It’s still not clear how Indiana colleges and corporations will react to the latest affirmative action ruling by the high court, Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. vs. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The decision held that using race in college admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th amendment, reversing 45 years of precedent set in the Bakke case. 

Our more woke colleges no doubt will continue to engineer disparity of some degree between groups in regard to college admissions, using “essays that provide insight into students’ values and life experiences,” as allowed by the ruling. 

But in Indiana, at least, government hiring and contracting practices will now reject such a  duplicitous strategy. It is about time. — tcl

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