Professor of Law, University of San Diego School of Law (Retired)
Gail Heriot is a recently retired law professor from the University of San Diego. She also served as a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 2007 to 2025. She is also the chairman of the board of the American Civil Rights Project and the chair emerita of the Civil Rights practice group at the Federalist Society for Law & Public Policy.
Professor Heriot is a prolific writer in the area of civil rights. She is the author of many law review articles. She is also the editor (along with Maimon Schwarzschild) of the 2021 anthology, A Dubious Expediency: How Race Preferences Damage Higher Education. Her upcoming book is entitled, Why We Walk on Eggshell: How Our Civil Rights Laws Helped Bring About the Woke Era—And the Trump Era, Too.
Her writings for a general audience have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the San Diego Union-Tribune, the National Review and many other newspapers and magazines.
In 1996, she co-chaired the successful “Yes on Proposition 209” campaign, which amended the California Constitution to prohibit state-sponsored discrimination or preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. In 2020, she co-chaired the “No on Proposition 16” campaign, which successfully prevented Proposition 209’s repeal.
Chairman, Center for Equal Opportunity
Linda Chavez is Chairman of the Center for Equal Opportunity. She has published opinions and columns in newspapers across the country and appears regularly on cable news. Chavez is the author of the three books: Out of the Barrio: Toward a New Politics of Hispanic Assimilation, An Unlikely Conservative: The Transformation of an Ex-Liberal, and Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics. She has been honored by the Library of Congress as a "Living Legend" and as nominee for Secretary of Labor by President George W. Bush.
Chavez has held many appointed positions and has served on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards. Among her appointed positions has been Chairman, National Commission on Migrant Education (1988-1992); White House Director of Public Liaison (1985); Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1983-1985); and member of the Administrative Conference of the United States (1984-1986). Chavez was also the Republican nominee for U.S. Senator from Maryland in 1986 and was elected by the United Nations' Human Rights Commission to serve a four-year term as U.S. Expert to the U.N. Sub-commission on the Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities.
Chavez earned her BA from the University of Colorado.
Board Member, Center for Equal Opportunity
Roger Clegg is a Board Member at and former President and General Counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. He focuses on legal issues arising from civil rights laws--including the regulatory impact on business and the problems in higher education created by affirmative action. A former Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan and Bush administrations, Clegg held the second highest positions in both the Civil Rights Division (1987-91) and in the Environment and Natural Resources Division (1991-93). He has held several other positions at the U.S. Justice Department, including Assistant to the Solicitor General (1985-87), Associate Deputy Attorney General (1984-85), and Acting Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy (1984). Clegg is a graduate of Yale University Law School (1981).
Legislative Alert: The Kennedy Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Gail L. Heriot
Civil Rights Practice Group Newsletter - Volume 2, Issue 3, Winter 1998
Americans reacted with revulsion when they learned of the brutal murders in Jasper, Texas and...
School Desegregation In 1999
Linda L. Chavez
Civil Rights Practice Group Newsletter - Volume 2, Issue 3, Winter 1998
Reproduced below is a recent letter that Linda Chavez, president of the Center for Equal...
An Authentic "National Dialogue" on Race
Roger B. Clegg
Civil Rights Practice Group Newsletter - Volume 2, Issue 3, Winter 1998
Following is a dialogue that might have occurred – indeed should have occurred – had...
Dear Reader
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
I am most pleased to present the Federalist Society's inaugural issue of Class Action Watch....
Analysis: Class Action Litigation-A Federalist Society Survey
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
When the Class Action Watch bulletin was first being planned, we were struck by the...
The Incidence of Class Action Activity: Is Class Action Litigation Increasing?
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
We began our survey by asking: "How many putative class actions were pending in 1988...
Is There A Relationship between Class Certification and Settlement?
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
Our survey asked for data respecting both the incidence of class certification and the incidence...
The Rand Institute's Class Action Study
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
In May 1997, the Rand Institute for Civil Justice released a preliminary report on its...
Some Thoughts on Class Action Litigation
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
During the Federalist Society's November 1998 National Lawyers Convention in Washington, D.C., the Litigation Practice...
Class Action Reform Proposals
Class Action Watch Fall 1998
Broader Federal Jurisdiction Last summer, the House Judiciary Committee advanced to the House floor the...