On December 3, 2024, at 4:30pm, in WLH 119 (100 Wall St, New Haven, CT), the Buckley Institute hosted a Firing Line debate over whether merit is a valid criterion for college admissions and hiring, featuring Yale Law School's Guido Calabresi Professor of Law Daniel Markovits and the Center for Equal Opportunity's Devon Westhill.
Devon Westhill is president and general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity. CEO is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization formed in 1995 to promote colorblind equal opportunity for all.
Mr. Westhill's writing has been published in numerous outlets including
Newsweek,
National Review, and
The Wall Street Journal. He has spoken hundreds of times at college campuses, conferences, and on radio programs, and has appeared on cable television channels including Fox News, Newsmax, and CSPAN. Mr. Westhill has also provided testimony to both houses of the U.S. Congress, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, and as an expert witness in federal court.
Immediately prior to his current position, Mr. Westhill led the civil rights office at the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the Trump administration as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights. He has also worked at the U.S. Department of Labor, Federalist Society, and as a criminal trial lawyer in private practice. Mr. Westhill is a U.S. Navy veteran with degrees from UNC at Chapel Hill and the University of Florida.
Daniel Markovits is the Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School and the Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Private Law. Markovits publishes widely and in a range of disciplines, including law, philosophy, and economics. His writings have appeared in
Science,
The American Economic Review,
The Yale Law Journal,
The New York Times,
The Washington Post,
Time, and
The Atlantic. In 2021,
Prospect Magazine named him to its list of the world’s top 50 thinkers.
His last book,
The Meritocracy Trap (Penguin Press, 2019), develops a sustained attack on American meritocracy. He is also working on a new book, tentatively called
The Good Life After the Age of Growth