Left Never Gets It: Equal Applies to Opportunity, Not Results

You hear it nearly every day. People talk about gay rights, women’s rights, transgender rights, Black and Hispanic rights.

It’s as though one group or another believes it has rights that are superior to those of the public at large.

Here's the newsflash: They don’t. But they still try.

In one of the latest examples, the U.S. Department of Justice opened a civil rights investigation into a program operated by the Rhode Island Foundation, in which recently hired teachers can get up to $25,000 in student loan debt relief.

But white teachers need not apply. Providence, Rhode Island public school teachers receive this benefit through what’s called the Educator of Color Loan Forgiveness Program.

However, the Justice Department didn’t just happen to stumble onto this program.

Enter the Legal Insurrection Foundation (LIF), and the LIF’s Equal Protection Project (EPP). The LIF and the EPP were founded by Cornell Law School professor William A. Jacobson.

LIF filed a Civil Rights Complaint against Providence Public School District on Nov. 14, 2022, and the DOJ is just now agreeing to act upon it.

"It’s been . . . almost two and a half years since we filed it," Jacobson told Fox News Digital.

"We followed up with them repeatedly. We couldn’t get the Biden administration to do anything to stop this. And finally, the new Trump administration under the Department of Justice Civil Rights Office has brought an action. So we’re very pleased with that," he added.

Jacobson said they were "extremely thankful" that the DOJ was taking action, because the case had "no other place to go."

"The Rhode Island attorney general could have brought suit here. There are Rhode Island laws that are being violated. But nothing was done.

"The political infrastructure in the state of Rhode Island unfortunately insulates powerful political and economic players from the rules that everyone else has to abide by," he said.

The Rhode Island case is by no means the only one that either the LIF or the EPP has brought. Just this year alone the Equal Protection Project has filed Civil Rights Complaints on the basis of race, color, national origin, and/or sex against:

• Grand Valley State University (GVSU) of Michigan on Jan. 13
• Four Pennsylvania-based universities on Jan. 28
• Dominican University of Illinois on Feb. 4
• Alfred University of New York on Feb. 12
• University of San Diego (USD) on Feb. 19
• University of New Mexico (UMN) on Feb. 26
• University of Oregon (UO) on March 4
• Calvin University (CU) of Michigan on March 12
• Institutional Member Colleges of the "North Star Collective," all located in the New England region, on March 19
• Indiana University South Bend on March 26

The Equal Protection Project has also filed numerous amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs in support of other plaintiffs who have filed civil rights actions.

The United States was, of course, Founded on the principles of liberty and equality. An oft-quoted phrase from the Declaration of Independence goes, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . . "

That was enshrined into law by the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, which reads, "nor shall any State . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Civil Rights legislation was approved and signed into law in the mid-1960s, which further guaranteed that equal treatment and facilities was the law of the land.

We drifted a bit away from the principle of equal treatment in 1978, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld affirmative action. This permitted race to be one of several factors used in setting college admission policy.

Two years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action, for both public and private universities. But old habits die hard.

Economist and social commentator Thomas Sowell once observed, "When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination."

What Americans have to understand is that equal means equal for everyone — man, woman, Black, White, straight, gay, or whatever.

And equal means equal opportunity, not equal results.

Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and is a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He's also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and a Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.