The California Democrat lost it at a hearing on diversity among federal judges. Peter Kirsanow, a member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission (and an NR contributor), pointed out that discrimination against Asian Americans by colleges lowers their numbers on the federal bench. Representative Lieu yelled at him for bringing up “irrelevant” issues, claiming he had nothing to say about the topic at hand.
During the exchange, Lieu also claims that 73 percent of federal judges are white men — he’s a bit off; the report he’s citing says 73 percent are white or male, and 59 percent are both — and that this proves that we “have an entire third branch of government in which people were selected on the basis of them being white.”
So: A statistical disparity is proof of intentional discrimination, while discrimination that is more or less trumpeted and celebrated is irrelevant.