A bit over two years ago, attorney Cory Liu contacted me and asked me if I was planning to write a brief urging the Supreme Court to hear the SFFA affirmative action cases. I explained my policy, noted above. Cory suggested that my emerging work on the arbitrariness of racial classifications, published in an article and in my then-forthcoming book, Classified, provided an important perspective on an issue that that the Court had largely ignored but needed to consider: not just whether affirmative action preferences served a compelling interest in the abstract, but whether the classifications used to grant or deny favorable treatment, such as “Hispanic” and “Asian,” were unduly arbitrary and failed to serve their purported purpose. Cory offered to write the brief with me as the named amicus, discussing my work. I agreed.

Once the Court agreed to hear the case on the merits, we filed another brief. As one of over 100 briefs filed in the case, I didn’t expect it to get any attention, and was pleasantly surprised when many articles on the case discussed this brief to the exclusion of almost all the others. Clearly, Cory and I had struck a nerve.

[I interviewed David about his book “Classified” almost exactly a year ago. It’s good to know that David’s common sense helped the court craft its decision on affirmative action. — Ed]