{{Short description|Professor of law at the UCLA School of Law}} {{infobox person | name = Richard Sander | birth_name = Richard Henry Sander | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1956|5|26}} | birth_place = Washington, D.C., U.S. | education = Harvard University (BA)<br>Northwestern University<br />(MA, JD, PhD) | occupation = Law professor }} '''Richard Henry Sander''' (born May 26, 1956) is an American legal scholar and economist. He is the Jesse Dukeminier Professor in Law at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and a critic of affirmative action. Sander is primarily known for producing the mismatch theory.
==Early life and education== Richard Sander was born on May 26, 1956, in Washington, D.C.<ref name="bio">{{cite web|url=http://seaphe.org/richardsander/?page_id=49|title=Richard Sander Biography|work=SEAPHE|accessdate=26 January 2016|archive-date=27 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127171836/http://seaphe.org/richardsander/?page_id=49|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/nr2005002773.html|title=Richard Sander|work=Library of Congress|accessdate=27 January 2016}}</ref> He was raised in Northern Indiana.<ref name="ucla" />
In 1978, Sander graduated ''magna cum laude'' from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Arts in social studies, then pursued graduate studies at Northwestern University, where he studied law and economics.<ref>{{Citation |title=Speaker Biographies: Richard Sander |date=April 2007 |work=Affirmative Action in American Law Schools |page=138 |url=https://www2.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/usccr/documents/usccrAALSreport.pdf |publisher=United States Commission on Civil Rights}}.</ref><ref>[https://www.usccr.gov/files/historical/2006/06-005.pdf usccr.gov]</ref> He earned his Master of Arts in economics from Northwestern in 1995, his Juris Doctor degree from the Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 1988, and his Ph.D. in economics from the university in 1990.<ref name="ucla">{{cite web | url=https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/richard-h-sander/ | title=Richard H. Sander | work=UCLA School of Law | accessdate=26 January 2016}}</ref>
==Career== Following his undergraduate degree in social studies, Sander became involved with the federal Vista program working with a housing group on the south side of Chicago. During his graduate studies at Northwestern, Sander served on the board of the Rogers Park Tenants Committee and was involved in the election effort of Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/richard-h-sander/|title=Richard H. Sander Biography Page|website=law.ucla.edu|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160506075132/https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/richard-h-sander/|archive-date=2016-05-06|access-date=2016-05-21}}</ref> Sander joined the UCLA School of Law faculty in 1989, and became a full professor there five years later.<ref name=bio/><ref name=ucla/> As in Chicago, in the 1990s Sander was involved in fair housing efforts in Los Angeles. He was the President of the Fair Housing Congress of Southern California, and in 1996 founded the Fair Housing Institute, helping City of Los Angeles design and implement its living wage law.<ref name=":0" />
==Work on affirmative action==
===Studies===
Sander is known for his research on affirmative action, which claims that it actually causes more negatives than benefits for African American law students by hurting them due to the overly competitive environments in more prestigious schools, through what he calls the "mismatch effect". He published his research in a 2004 article in ''Stanford Law Review'' where he claimed that if minority students had been admitted into less-competitive schools for which they would qualify without affirmative action, they would have been more successful.<ref>{{cite journal | jstor=40040209| title=A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools | author=Sander, Richard | journal=Stanford Law Review | date=November 2004 | volume=57 | issue=2| pages=367–483 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2015/12/15/a-legitimate-reason-for-disputes-over-mismatch/|title=A legitimate reason for disputes over mismatch|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2016-05-24}}</ref><ref name="slate">{{cite web | url=http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2005/04/sanding_down_sander.html | title=Sanding Down Sander | work=Slate | date=29 April 2005 | accessdate=26 January 2016 | author=Bazelon, Emily}}</ref> He has also published studies suggesting that law firms' efforts to promote diversity sometimes led to them hiring underqualified black lawyers, leading to these lawyers being more likely than their better-credentialed white counterparts to leave the firm.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-sep-08-me-barstudy8-story.html | title=Does affirmative action help or hurt lawyers? | work=Los Angeles Times | date=8 September 2008 | access-date=26 January 2016 | author=Williams, Carol J.}}</ref> His research is controversial and has been widely criticized, including by Ian Ayres and Richard Brooks. Ayres and Brooks published a study in 2005<ref>{{cite journal | url=http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2230&context=fss_papers | title=Does Affirmative Action Reduce the Number of Black Lawyers? | author=Ayres, Ian | journal=Stanford Law Review | date=January 2005 | volume=57}}</ref> finding that eliminating affirmative action would not increase the number of black lawyers by 7.9 percent, as Sander's study had claimed, but that it would instead reduce the number of lawyers by about 12.7 percent.<ref name="slate" /> A 2008 study by Jesse Rothstein and Albert H. Yoon confirmed Sander's mismatch findings, but also found that eliminating affirmative action would "lead to a 63 percent decline in black matriculants at all law schools and a 90 percent decline at elite law schools."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/03/affirm | title=Attacking the 'Mismatch' Critique of Affirmative Action | work=Inside Higher Education | date=3 September 2008 | accessdate=27 January 2016 | author=Jaschik, Scott | archive-date=13 December 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171213085052/https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2008/09/03/affirm | url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=":1" /> These high numbers predictions were doubted in the National Bureau of Economic Research article by Peter Arcidiacono and Michael Lovenheim; a lower, 32.5 percent was another decrease cited and considered in the article. Their 2016 article found a strong indication that racial preference results in a mismatch effect. They argued that the attendance by some African-American students to less-selective schools would significantly improve the low first attempt rate at passing the state bar, but they cautioned that such improvements could be outweighed by decreases in law school attendance.<ref name=":1">{{cite journal |first1=Peter |last1=Arcidiacono |first2=Michael |last2=Lovenheim |date=March 2016 |title=Affirmative Action and the Quality-Fit Tradeoff |url=https://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/jeclit/v54y2016i1p3-51.html |journal=Journal of Economic Literature |pages=30, 31 and 69 |volume=54 |number=1 |doi=10.1257/jel.54.1.3 |s2cid=1876963 |accessdate=May 25, 2016 |url-access=subscription }}</ref>
In 2006, and in order to gain further research information regarding his mis match theory, excepting individuals privacy information, Sander requested the California Bar to release its stored data of bar exam scores, grade point averages and LSAT scores including race and gender information of everyone who applied to the bar association. The bar denied this request based on privacy grounds. In 2008, and along with the First Amendment Coalition, Sander filed a lawsuit in California Supreme Court demanding the release of that information. On April 12, 2016, the court ruled that the California Bar was required to oblige with Sander's request. In 2018, however, the California Court of Appeals affirmed that the bar had no duty to release the records.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/04/14/long-legal-fight-over-access-to-california-bar-admissions-data-headed-for-trial/|title=Long Legal Fight Over Access to California Bar Admissions Data Headed for Trial|last=Gershman|first=Jacob|website=WSJ|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526220038/https://blogs.wsj.com/law/2016/04/14/long-legal-fight-over-access-to-california-bar-admissions-data-headed-for-trial/|archive-date=2016-05-26|access-date=2016-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.calbar.ca.gov/AboutUs/News/ThisYearsNewsReleases/201618.aspx|title=STATE BAR ISSUES STATEMENT ON SANDER RULING|website=www.calbar.ca.gov|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526215924/http://www.calbar.ca.gov/AboutUs/News/ThisYearsNewsReleases/201618.aspx|archive-date=2016-05-26|access-date=2016-05-26}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Sander v. State Bar of California |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/california/court-of-appeal/2018/a150061.html |access-date=2023-02-04 |website=Justia Law |language=en}}</ref>
In 2015, Sander filed a [http://www.scotusblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Sander-brief-for-Fisher-v-Univesrity-of-Texas-corrected.pdf Brief Amicus Curiae In Support of Neither Party] in regards to the affirmative action issue addressed by Supreme Court of the United States in ''Fisher v. University of Texas''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://law.ucla.edu/news-and-events/in-the-news/2015/12/Amicus-Brief-by-Professor-Richard-Sander-Referenced-by-Justice-Scalia-in-Fisher-v-Texas-Affirmative-Action-Case-Currently-Before-US-Supreme-Court/|title=News|website=law.ucla.edu|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160526221848/https://law.ucla.edu/news-and-events/in-the-news/2015/12/Amicus-Brief-by-Professor-Richard-Sander-Referenced-by-Justice-Scalia-in-Fisher-v-Texas-Affirmative-Action-Case-Currently-Before-US-Supreme-Court/|archive-date=2016-05-26|access-date=2016-05-26}}</ref>
In 2022, he wrote an article in ''Politico'' on the topic of the ongoing case ''Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard''. Sander encouraged the Supreme Court of the United States to extend the application of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, not the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, to universities to limit their use of racial preferences, while leaving the issue in the realm of statutory law so that the United States Congress can address the issue as its sees fit.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=S |first1=Richard |last2=er |title=Opinion {{!}} The Supreme Court Has a Chance to Show Strategic Restraint |url=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/11/04/a-supreme-court-compromise-on-affirmative-action-00065002 |access-date=2022-11-05 |website=POLITICO |language=en}}</ref>
===Book=== Sander has also co-written a book, along with Stuart Taylor, Jr., entitled ''Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It''. which expresses similar views on affirmative action as his research.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-sad-irony-of-affirmative-action | title=The Sad Irony of Affirmative Action | work=National Affairs | date=Winter 2013 | accessdate=27 January 2016 | author=Heriot, Gail}}</ref> The book was reviewed favorably in the ''New Republic'' by Richard Kahlenberg, who called it "perceptive" and said that it "presents a nuanced treatment of the issue".<ref>{{cite magazine | url=https://newrepublic.com/article/108347/mismatch-affirmative-action-fisher-university-texas | title=Race to the Flop—The Problem with Affirmative Action | magazine=New Republic | date=10 October 2012 | accessdate=27 January 2016 | author=Kahlenberg, Richard}}</ref>
== See also == Richard Sander participated in ''Intelligence squared debates:'' [https://opentodebate.org/debate/affirmative-action-campus-does-more-harm-good/ Affirmative Action Does More Harm Than Good]
==References== {{Reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sander, Richard Henry}} Category:Living people Category:1956 births Category:UCLA School of Law faculty Category:Harvard University alumni Category:Northwestern University alumni Category:Academics from Washington, D.C. Category:Opposition to affirmative action Category:Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law alumni Category:20th-century American lawyers Category:21st-century American lawyers Category:21st-century American economists Category:20th-century American economists Category:American legal scholars Category:American economists Category:University of California, Los Angeles faculty