Fearless Fund is Just the Beginning

I’ve been tracking the AAER / Fearless Fund litigation and related developments very closely. I’ve been telling clients not to take immediate action based on the filing of the lawsuit, as it could be many years before the law is settled in this area. Similarly, the judge’s denial of the AAER preliminary injunction motion is not really meaningful in the long-term evolution of the law in this area. The AAER has already filed an appeal, and the appeal will be heard by one of the most conservative appellate courts in the federal system. In fact, it is likely that the AAER chose Fearless as its first target because of the opportunity to leverage this conservative appellate court.

It is also important to note that Blum (founder of the AAER) and his allies are in this for the long term. Remember, this is the same cast of characters behind the recent anti-affirmative action Supreme Court case in the higher education context. It took Blum and his allies 15 years and tens of millions of dollars to ultimately succeed in changing the law around affirmative action in higher education. His case against Harvard alone took 9 years to wind its way through the system. Along the way, Blum also lost cases – including a Supreme Court case in 2016 with a different university. But he understands how to work the judicial system to change the law. People in support of reparative finance would benefit from understanding it as well.

There will be much more to come from me on this topic . . .