Ward Connerly‘s divisive and misleading “civil rights initiatives” have been popular in the states where he succeeds in getting them on the ballot, and this year looks likely to continue the trend. Nebraska voters passed their affirmative action ban, though a lawsuit contesting the signatures used to get the amendment on the ballot could derail it from becoming law.

Colorado’s affirmative action amendment is currently too close to call.

More evidence that if affirmative action is to legally survive, lawmakers must move away from a race and gender-based definition of privilege and toward a more holistic, class-based system.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.