Get the Ricochet app

Ricochet will work fine in a browser on your mobile devices, but for the best experience please download our app.

Download on the App StoreGet it on Google Play

Become a member.

Tired of the toxicity of social media? Why not join Ricochet for just $5/month? Think of it as an online bar. Come in, have a drink, hang out, say whatever you want. But don’t badger, bully, or berate the other drinkers. That's our only rule.

David E. Bernstein

David Bernstein is professor of law at the Scalia Law School at George Mason University

Series

3 Whisky Happy Hour1 episodeHubwonk2 episodes

Recent Episodes

Hubwonk
Hubwonk

Diversity’s Dubious Definition: Harvard Case Spells End to Racial Classifications

Joe Selvaggi discusses the implications of the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case for race and ethnicity-based programs with David Bernstein, a Distinguished Law Professor at George Mason University and an Adjunct Fellow at the CATO Institute. Guest: David E. Bernstein holds a University Professorship chair at the Antonin Scalia Law School, where he has been teaching since 1995. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, William & Mary, Brooklyn Law School, the University of Turin, and Hebrew University. Professor Bernstein teaches constitutional law, evidence, and products liability. A prolific author, Professor Bernstein often challenges the conventional wisdom with prodigious research and sharp, original analysis. Columnist George Will praised Bernstein’s most recent book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, as “perhaps the most consequential American book of 2022.”
Host:
Joe Selvaggi

April 2023

Hubwonk
Hubwonk

Inventing Racial Classifications: Legacy and Limits of Discriminatory Labels

Joe Selvaggi talks with George Mason Law Professor David E. Bernstein about his book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America, discussing the ways in which racial definitions once used for past abuse and exclusion have evolved to become a central feature used to describe modern society. Guest: David E. Bernstein holds a University Professorship chair at the Antonin Scalia Law School, where he has been teaching since 1995. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, Georgetown University, William & Mary, Brooklyn Law School, the University of Turin, and Hebrew University. Professor Bernstein teaches Constitutional Law, Evidence, and Products Liability. A prolific author, Professor Bernstein often challenges the conventional wisdom with prodigious research and sharp, original analysis. He is the author of five books, and coauthor of two more.
Host:
Joe Selvaggi

October 2022

3 Whisky Happy Hour
3 Whisky Happy Hour

Classified, With David Bernstein

Next Monday the Supreme Court takes up the Harvard and University of North Carolina affirmative action admissions cases, but before getting to the constitutional doctrine of the matter, there is a vexing matter that is often overlooked: if we're going to be giving out racial preferences for admissions (and government contracts, etc), who counts as a member of which minority group? The government's racial classifications turn out to be something of a red hot mess, as David E. Bernstein explores in his new book Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America. In this lecture delivered recently at Berkeley Law, Prof. Bernstein reviews some of the milestones and confusions in this whole sordid business. Give a listen—but especially pick up a copy of his book. It is relatively short, and easy reading despite the complications of the issue.
Host:
Steve Hayward
Organization
Ricochet