TFN's 'Briefing Paper' on ACC Board Candidate Marc Levin

Attorney Marc Levin – candidate for Place 6 on the Austin Community College Board of Trustees – currently serves as vice- president of the Texas Review Society, a nonprofit organization that publishes far-right public policy newspapers and journals in Texas. He has served as president of the far-right Texas Federalist Society and as state vice-chairman and general counsel for the Young Conservatives of Texas. The Young Conservatives of Texas are known for outrageous stunts like "bake sales" on university campuses in which members charge women, African-American and Hispanic customers lower prices for pastries to protest affirmative action programs. i

Although he is seeking a spot on the governing board of a large, urban public community college with a racially diverse student body, Mr. Levin is a staunch opponent of affirmative action programs. He has led numerous groups that want to dismantle affirmative action programs across the country, including serving as president of the American Freedom Center, vice-president of Students for a Colorblind Society and executive director of The Campaign for a Colorblind America. Levin is also an adviser to the Sacramento-based American Civil Rights Institute, headed by Ward Connerly, who in 1995 persuaded fellow members of the University of California Board of Regents to end an affirmative action program for student admissions. Mr. Levin was staff attorney to Texas Supreme Court Justice Steven Wayne Smith, attorney for the seven plaintiffs in Hopwood v. Texas, the case that ended affirmative action in Texas. When UT Professor Lino Graglia said "Blacks and Mexican-Americans are not academically competitive with whites in selective institutions," Mr. Levin publicly defended those remarks. ii

Mr. Levin's activism goes far beyond just opposition to affirmative action. His published statements on a broad range of policy issues that demonstrate his out-of-the-mainstream views.

"There is evidence that gay people have a shorter life span," Levin has said in arguing against adoption by gay men and lesbians. "And it is not in the best interest of the child to be in a family that will not only be subject to ridicule, but statistically dead at an earlier age." iii

Mr. Levin has said that the federal Fair Housing Act – which prohibits housing discrimination based on race, gender and other characteristics – increases crime and protects illegal drug users. iv

Mr. Levin calls respected commentator and former presidential press secretary Bill Moyers a "socialist" and a "Marxist,"v accuses Children's Defense Fund founder Marion Wright Edelman of being a "communist,"vi and asserts that the League of Women Voters "advocates left-wing positions." vii

Mr. Levin advocates racial profiling of Arabs. viii

Although he is running to serve a public education entity, Mr. Levin advocates taking money from public schools to subsidize tuition for religious and private schools. ix

Mr. Levin has criticized the Houston Chronicle for giving money to Planned Parenthood and aligned himself with radical-right groups like Greater Austin Right to Life Committee and Texas Eagle Forum. x

Saying "Texas could become Mexico's nursing home," Mr. Levin filed formal complaints with several urban hospitals in Texas, charging that they were illegally providing "unlimited free health care to illegal immigrants" and saying "the only difference between an illegal Mexican immigrant who successfully crosses the border and a Mexican citizen who remains in Mexico is that the former has broken our laws." xi

Mr. Levin believes institutions of higher education, especially the University of Texas at Austin, are indoctrinating students with "socialism, lesbian studies and deconstructionist claptrap." xii

Mr. Levin says the Kyoto treaty is "disastrous,"xiii dubs global warming "uncertain science," and was a Charles G. Koch Fellow at the Center for Market Processes now the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, a group that promotes environmental deregulation and has close ties to other far-right groups like Citizens for a Sound Economy and the Institute for Humane Studies. xiv

At the University of Texas at Austin, Mr. Levin opposed the Women's Resource Center and Minority Information Center. xv

– The Texas Freedom Network

Footnotes:

1. Marc Levin's Bio, American Freedom Center Web site, http://www.homestead.com

2. Kennedy, Jennie. "Professor's Comments Questioned," The Daily Texan centennial Edition, 9/11/97.

3. Lum, Matt. "St. Valentine Prompts Gay Marriage Dialogue," The Texas Triangle, 2/9/01.

4. Levin, Marc. "The Fair Housing Act Isn't," The Houston Review, 7/18/01.

5. Levin, Marc. "A Bleak Future?" The Austin Review, 8/1/2000.

6. Levin, Marc. "Viewpoint: Review Publisher & Co-Founder Bids Farewell," The Austin Review, 5/5/98.

7. Levin, Marc. "Texas League of Women Voters: Unbiased Do-Gooders or Liberal Activists," The Houston Review, 5/19/04.

8. Levin, Marc. "Nationality Profiling and How to Slow Down Terrorism," ClarendonToday.com, 5/3/02.

9. Levin, Marc. "Affirmative Action in Texas Colleges," 12/11/2003. uts.cc.utexas.edu

10. Levin, Marc. "Houston Chronicle Under Fire for Donating Thousands to largest Abortion Provider," The Houston Review, 8/14/99.

11. Levin, Marc. "Must Texas Taxpayers Subsidize Their Own Dispossession?," VDARE.com from The Center for American Unity, 7/31/01. http://www.vdare.com

12. Levin, Marc. "Radical Courses Pepper UT's Fall Schedule," The Austin Review, 5/24/99.

13. Levin, Marc. "Take Politics Out of the Environment," Northwestern Chronicle, 8/21/01. http://www.chron.org.

14. Entry on "Mercatus Center," Disinfopedia.org, www.disinfopedia.org

15. Levin, Marc. "Student Government Approves Women's Resource Center," Austin Review, 4/3/98.

i Marc Levin's Bio, American Freedom Center Web site, http://www.homestead.com

ii Kennedy, Jennie. "Professor's Comments Questioned," The Daily Texan centennial Edition, 9/11/97.

iii Lum, Matt. "St. Valentine Prompts gay Marriage Dialogue," The Texas Triangle, 2/9/01.

iv Levin, Marc. "The Fair Housing Act Isn't," The Houston Review, 7/18/01.

v Levin, Marc. "A Bleak Future?" The Austin Review, 8/1/2000.

vi Levin, Marc. "Viewpoint: Review Publisher & Co-Founder Bids Farewell," The Austin Review, 5/5/98.

vii Levin, Marc. "Texas League of Women Voters: Unbiased Do-Gooders or Liberal Activists," The Houston Review, 5/19/04.

viii Levin, Marc. "Nationality Profiling and How to Slow Down Terrorism," ClarendonToday.com, 5/3/02.

ix Levin, Marc. "Affirmative Action in Texas Colleges," 12/11/2003. http://uts.cc.utexas.edu.

x Levin, Marc. "Houston Chronicle Under Fire for Donating Thousands to largest Abortion Provider," The Houston Review, 8/14/99.

xi Levin, Marc. "Must Texas Taxpayers Subsidize Their Own Dispossession?," VDARE.com from The Center for American Unity, 7/31/01. http://www.vdare.com

xii Levin, Marc. "Radical Courses Pepper UT's Fall Schedule," The Austin Review, 5/24/99.

xiii Levin, Marc. "Take Politics Out of the Environment," Northwestern Chronicle, 8/21/01. http://www.chron.org.

xiv Entry on "Mercatus Center," Disinfopedia.org, http://www.disinfopedia.org.

xv Levin, Marc. "Student Government Approves Women's Resource Center," Austin Review, 4/3/98.