Groups blast conservatives' attempt to stop Smithsonian Latino internship

Latino organizations and national civil rights groups blasted a lawsuit filed by conservative legal activist Edward Blum to end a Smithsonian Institution internship designed to draw more Latinos into museum studies and jobs.

The groups say in a friend of the court, or amicus, brief that the selection criteria for the internship do not include race or ethnicity and that application materials do not limit entry to any race or ethnicity.

The selection process is entirely race- and ethnicity-neutral, the groups say in the brief. The groups oppose Blum's request for a preliminary injunction suspending the internship program. A hearing is set for April 8.

Blum, president of the American Alliance for Equal Rights, suedthe director of the yet-to-be-built American Museum of the National Latino last month. He has alleged the program is unconstitutional because it is “not equally open to non-Latinos.” Blum won the legal case that effectively ended affirmative action.

Blum did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

The groups said Blum is asking that the equal protection clause, part of the 14th Amendment, be used "as a bludgeon to deter equal opportunity.” The equal protection clause, which guarantees "equal protection under the law," has been the basis for court rulings that prohibit discrimination, such as the landmark desegregation case Brown v. Board of Education.

In addition, the organizations said Blum fails to understand Latino identity and ignores historical "under-inclusion" of Latinos in the American workforce.

“This lawsuit attacks efforts to remedy racial discrimination and is part of an assault on civil rights progress,” Katy Youker, director of the Economic Justice Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for