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The Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Signaling and the Racial Politics of Immigration Enforcement

January 22, 2026

The Supreme Court’s Shadow Docket Signaling and the Racial Politics of Immigration Enforcement. // Brionna Bolaños
U.S. Supreme Court

November 4, 2025

The Supreme Court heard arguments in Louisiana v. Callais over whether a court-ordered majority-Black district constitutes racial gerrymandering, threatening Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. // Dayle Chung
October 16: Federal Judge blocks deployment of National Guardsmen to Portland, SCOTUS allows Trump administration to terminate deportation protections, and ICE barred from detaining minors past 18th birthdays

October 16, 2025

Federal Judge blocks deployment of National Guard to Portland, SCOTUS allows Trump administration to terminate deportation protections, and ICE barred from detaining minors past 18th birthdays. // Brionna Bolaños
Race and Regulation Blog 1

Reassessing Disparate Impact

While disparate impact doctrine can be misused, the Trump Administration’s wholesale rejection of this anti-discrimination tool ignores its vital role in uncovering covert bias and promoting true meritocracy.

 

Ralph Richard Banks

Ralph Richard Banks
Co-Founder and Faculty Director, Jackson Eli Reynolds Professor of Law

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Steamboat Institute

Debate: Should the government ban all DEI programs?

Rick Banks debates the Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley on whether the government should ban all DEI programs.

The Atlantic

Trump Is Right About Affirmative Action

Prof. Banks on some of affirmative action’s limitations as a “Band-Aid” that lets society postpone “dealing with the big issues.”

The Federalist Society

The Future of DEI: The Case of the Fearless Fund

Rick Banks on future of DEI initiatives in a short film examining American Alliance for Equal Rights v. Fearless Fund, a case challenging a race-based grant program under Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866.

Stanford Legal Podcast

Trump's Executive Orders, Culture Wars, and Civil Rights

Prof. Banks joins host Professor Pamela Karlan for a deep dive into how the disparate impact doctrine really works, why it matters, and what’s at stake when it’s attacked in the name of “meritocracy.”

CHALLENGING PRECEDENT    RACE, LAW & REGULATION IN THE TRUMP ERA.

CHALLENGING PRECEDENT is a blog of the Stanford Center for Racial Justice that examines the intersection of race, law, and regulation during the Trump administration. From executive orders and agency rulings to federal litigation and negotiations with universities, businesses, and foreign governments, the administration is repeatedly challenging established legal frameworks while implementing sweeping new policies. Race stands at the center of many of these developments, alongside competing visions of fairness, justice, and opportunity—tensions that the blog will analyze and interpret.

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