Know, the betty murphy award is given every year to an unsung hero, Community Service leader, an Organization Builder who inspires others efforts. Betty was an amazing woman. As many can tell, who knew her, she was chair of the nlrb and administer of the wage hour of the department at the department of labor and our very first cochair. We have many past betty murray award winners. The founder of our pittsburgh chapter and was later nominated for attorney general in pennsylvania. We have linda kerns who led our philadelphia chapter in 2016. Did a great job getting president trumps shocking victory in 2016. Later we have mike davis who used to lead our colorado chapter. And mike left colorado to come here to help confirm his friend, kneel gorsuch neil gorsuch. So thats going to be a great panel at the end of the day for all of you who want to watch that. Lastly, we got brenda hankins. She founded her womens initiative. She was also one of the leaders of getting a universal reporting system for Election Integrity issues. I want to turn to this years winner, ashley titus. When i asked the general counsel aaron clark for a quote on ashley, i had to cut it down because she was praising her so much. Colorado is crucial to california is crucial to taking back the u. S. House. As the nrcc california lawyer, the california chair and lawyer for the California Republican party. She organized statewide Election Integrity programs for years to ensure elections is clean as california can be. People forget one of the reasons for our success in 2020 in the u. S. House, despite president trumps lost, we learned how to ballot harvest in california. Its a terrible law but we have to work within the existing law because the democrats do. So thank you, ashley. For chairman jordan, leader scalise, and speaker mccarthy. And all you do for the movement. And here is the betty murphy award for you. Come up here and say a few words. [applause] ashley thank you, everybody. I really dont like attention on myself. I dont like the spotlight but im gratified to accept this award and be recognized by the nlra. Rnla. I think michael is one of the best people in the country in terms of how he hires people and the alumni speaks highly of the organization and for all the lawyers who volunteer for the rnla and for Election Integrity cycle after cycle. The rnla connects the dots between election lawyers like me, the campaigns which, of course, changed from cycle to cycle and the volunteers and the rnla is the constant from election to election and im humbled to be part of carrying out the mention of the rnla on the west coast, as michael already mentioned. Our program in california wouldnt be possible without the rnla so thank you for keeping the faith that california is not a lost cause. [applause] michael betty, brenda, anybody that won in the past. Come on up, brenda. Lets go to the next panel. Im very excited to have heather up here. I had the opportunity when i was snapt attorney general for civil rights at d. O. J. Right after we came in on the transition, heather had just written her wonderful book, if you have not seen it, the war on cops, and i actually brought her in to the Conference Room of the civil rights division, j. Edgar hoovers office, fifth floor of the d. O. J. , and talk about what was going on at that particular point in time. We had baltimore. We had all the first wave of the pre2020 kind of war on cops. It was just phenomenal having her in in and having some of my staff in there kind of hearing the perspective she brings to this and her willingness to tell things to tell truth through power. I wanted to say that, heather, before i invited lowell up to introduce you. Lowell is managing partner for hush blackwell. Shes also the rnla counsel which is a tough job being counsel to a bunch of lawyers. Shes also on the rnla board of governors and served both as missouris Deputy Director of revenue, director to the governor. With that, lowell. Lowell ill introduce ms. Mcdonald from the podium and then ill sit down and let her do you prefer to stand or sit . Ok. This is a real honor for me. Heather mcdonald is one of the great scholars in law in the country. Shes the thomas w. Smith fellow at the manhattan institute. She has a bachelor of arts from yale. A master of arts from cambridge. And a j. D. From stanford law school. The only thing i have in common with her is i went to stanford as well. So very thats where the similarities stop. Shes an accomplished author. Several bethselling books. Im not going to read you the titles but i do want to say at least two of them deal with defending the police. And the problems that we have in our urban areas. And shes won numerous awards from Law Enforcement agencies because of that. Shes here today to talk about her newest book which was just released in april which is titled when race trumps merit. Its an extraordinarily wellreverend, thoughtful wellreverend, thoughtful anational well researched, thoughtful whats going on in the last three years. We will have time for questions. And she will be signing books in the lobby here after her presentation. So with all that, great privilege and honor to introduce heather macdonald. [applause] heather thank you very much, mr. Pearson. This is an extraordinary honor to be with this intellectual powerhouse here. The single trait of our time is this we live by sections. The press is fairminded and objective. The Washington Nationals have a chance to win the world series. [laughter] jetsetting climate activists are prepared to sacrifice one iota of their carbon consufrptive lifestyles consumptive lifestyles. Men can get pregnant. The biggest Terror Threat facing the u. S. Today comes from, quote, domestic extremists. Thats code for disgruntled whites who are poised to violently overthrow the government. Therefore, disinformation, i. E. , dissent from orthodoxy, must be suppressed. But the most consequential fiction of all is that any Racial Disparity today in any institution is the result of racism. If a Cancer Research lab does not have 13 black oncologists, the black share of the national population, it is by definition a racist lab that discriminates against competitively qualified black oncologists. If a law firm does not have 13 black partners, it is by definition a racist law firm that discriminates against competitively qualified black associates. If the prison population contains more than 13 black prisoners, our Law Enforcement system is by definition racist. The rule that Racial Disparities are necessarily a product of racism has affected institutions across the cultural and political landscape. Perhaps nowhere more astonishingly than the fields of science and medicine. The crazy optimists who saw the diversity sledgehammer would never strike them, they were wrong. The American Medical Association insists that medicine is characterized by white supremacy. The biden Administrations Office of science and Technology Policy declares that science deepens inequalities. The Smithsonian Institution announces that, quote, emphasis on the scientific message and interest in, quote, cause and effect relationships is part of totalitarian whiteness. And so pursuant to the principle that any lack of racial proportionality signals discrimination, we are dismantling behavioral standards that have an impact on underrepresented minorities in stem and elsewhere. Part one of the medical licensing exam, for example, test medical students knowledge of anatomy, physiology and pathology. Black medical students score at the bottom of the grading curve. Their low scores make it harder for them to land their preferred residencies. Solution get rid of scores. Last year part one of the licensing exam went passfail to ensure that hospital departments, when choosing residents, could not distinguished among high and lowachieving students. Some medical schools have waived the submission of the Medical College achievement test for black applicants because the average black mcat score is a standard below white test applicants. And the gap between asian and black applicants is even wider. The mcats have already been redesigned to try to eliminate those gaps. A quarter of the questions now focus on social issues and psychology to no avail. The medical School Curriculum is being revised in the hope of shrinking the grade gap, more classes in social advocacy, less time in clinical practice. The federal government is shifting medical Research Funding from pure science to research on Racial Disparities and social justice. Why . Not because of any assessment of scientific need but simply because black researchers do more Racism Research and less pure science. The National Institutes of health has broadened the criteria for receiving neurology grants because considering scientific accomplishment alone has a disparate impact. Now having been in foster care or having used the welfare program, w. I. C. , as a child will be counted as a qualification for doing federally funded alzheimers research. What is at stake in these revisions . Future medical progress and ultimately lives. The legal profession, which gave us the disparate impact in the first place has itself become a juicy target. Upon taking office in 2021, President Joe Biden announced he would not submit his judicial nominees to the a. B. A. For a preliminary rating. Allowing them to vet candidates was incompatible with the quote, diversification of the judicialary judiciary, explained a member of the white house counsels office. Are you kidding me . They could not open their collective mouth without issuing a bromide about diversifying the bar. They are obsessed with the demographics of Corporate Law firms and faculties. This is the same that gave the highest rating to a Supreme Court nominee who would claim during oral argument on Vaccine Mandates that, quote, over 100,000 children are in serious conditions from covid and many are on ventilators. That would be Justice Sonia soto may yor who sotomayor. It is a measure how far the Biden Administration intended to stray from the diversitydriven standard of competence that it saw the a. B. A. As a roadblock. One of those diverse biden nominee, one from the Central District of california, has announced she would like to see attorneys in her courtrooms whos, quote, identities further the diversity of the legal profession, end quote. The code of conduct for United States judges holds that judges should, quote, promote Public Confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary. If i were a heterosexual white male attorney appearing before judge frempalm, and the opposing counsel was a transblack female, was i at confidence i was at no disadvantage visavis opposing counsel . I would not. However, impartial judge frempam plight be in fact. It would be widely replicated that would strike the very essence of the law. The promise of being judged by a neutral arbiter and governed by neutral principles. The only preference that a judge should have is for an attorney who can ably and professionally advocate on behalf of his client. The overwhelm preference a prz should have is judges who will reason dispassionately and adhere to precedent. Candidates have gone further officially lowering sentences for black convicts as a way to fight systemic racism. This will spread to the u. S. Although it is undoubtedly already been adopted piecemeal and soto voce. Meanwhile bar associations are lowering standards. In 2020 california lowered the test score on the bar exam because black applicants were failing. Only 5 of black Law School Graduates passed the California Bar on the first try in february of 2020 compared to 52 of white Law School Graduates and 42 of asian Law School Graduates. The lack proportional representation among californias attorneys were prove of a discriminatory credentialing system. Delaware lowered its bar passing score and cut by half the number of essays required for the same reason. The pressure to eliminate the lsat requirement for Law School Admissions is enormous because it, too, has a disparate impact. A single mother told an a. B. A. Panel quote, i would hate to give up my dream on become ago lawyer just due to not being able to successfully handle this test. The problem always lies with the test. And never with the test taker. Therefore the a. B. A. So the a. B. A. Delegates voted this february to preserve. Lsat requirement, they do not have the last word. You heard it here first. The requirement will be axed. What about this foundational fiction that any disparity in any institution is the result of racism . The truth is this. The reason for the lack of proportional representation across a range of fields is the Academic Skills gap. And let me issue a trigger warning here. Im going to raise uncomfortable facts, ones that many wellintentioned americans would rather not here. But without being able to acknowledge the skills gap, we are going to continue destroying our civilizational legacy. Let me also say that i am talking about Group Averages not about any given individual. Thousands of individuals with an underperforming groups outperform not only their own Group Average but us thats of individuals within other groups as well. Here are the relevant facts. In 2019, 66 of all black 12th graders did not possess even partial mastery of basic 12th grade math skills, defined as being able to do arithmetic or read a graph. Only 7 of black 12th graders were proficient in 12th a grade math 12th grade math defined able to calculate aourbing ratios. The number of black 12th graders advanced in math was too small to show up statistically in the national sample. The picture was not much better in reading. 50 of black 12th graders did not possess even partial mastery of basic reading and only 4 were exams. If you wonder why gifted and talented programs are being eliminated across the country, theres your reason. Remember these data when President Biden and the supporters vilify americans, especially republicans, for alleged bias against underrepresented minorities, because this institution or that is not proportionally diverse. The skills gap tphefrl closes. The disparities in the s. A. T. Lsat, g. R. A. s, and others are just as wide. We can argue about why those disparities exist and how to close them. Something that policymakers and philanthropists have been trying to do for decades. In light of these skills gap it is irrational to expect 13 black representation on a medical School Faculty stay or among a law firms partners under purely merit standards. At present you can have diversity or you can have meritocracy. You cannot have both. The consequences of the diversity fiction for our legal system are particularly dire. Americas most complex moral and political questions have often been addressed through court decisions. The quality of reasoning in those decisions can strengthen our undermine the legitimacy of our constitutional order. Commercial matters can be just as thorny. As do conflicts of law school demonstrated if you even dare to take the notoriously tortured subject, private parties rely on the transparency of case law to predict the outcome of legal disputes. When President Biden declared he was limiting himself to black females for his first Supreme Court nominee, he radically constrained his options. By some reports only 2 of lawyers in the u. S. Are black females. Yet as of january, 2023, 24 of all bidens judicial appointments have been black females. Now consider the Academic Skills gap. Over half of black law students are in the bottom 10th of their Law School Class after their first year of school. 2 3 of black law students are in the bottom fifth of their class. These twin constraints make a decline in our jurisprudence in a diversity regime almost inevitable. But the leaders of our mainstream institutions would rather accuse their completion and their country of phantom bias than acknowledge the pipeline problem. The fictions in Law Enforcement are as stupefying as those in stem and the law. We are all pretending that as President Biden is fond of intoning, black parents are right to fear that their children will be killed by a Police Officer or by a white gunslingerrer time those children step outside. We are all pretending that, quote, existing while black, is a highrisk activity thanks to racist whites. As the mayor of kansas city recently proclaimed. The facts are these. Existing while black is far more dangerous than existing while white. The reason is the black homicide rate. Black juveniles in the post george floyd world die of gun homicides at 100 times the rate of white juveniles. Who is killing them . Not the police. Not whites. But other blacks. The press ignores those black juvenile deaths because they do not fit the antipolice, antiwhite narrative. As for interracial violence, blacks are a far greater threat to whites than whi