The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights considered the following resolution at its September 12 meeting: Given the significant role that scientific and empirical data play in academic study and enforcement of civil rights, the Commission opposes efforts to ban the ability of government entities or public institutions to collect racial or ethnographic statistics.The measure seems relatively innocuous and reasonable. It passed by a 6-2 margin. I voted against it. I had several reasons for doing so, not the least of which was my concern that the resolution would be used in the propaganda battle involving California's Proposition 54 — the...