“This is a step towards meritocracy – maybe,” said WWL’s Newell Normand this week of the Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
With the ruling, the court overturned affirmative action, which was held up by Brown v. Board of Education and allowed colleges to use race as a determining factor for admission.
Six out of the courts nine judges agreed with the ruling, penned by Chief Justice John Roberts (he was joined by Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanagh, Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito). However, the three left-leaning judges (Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Ketanji Brown Jackson) dissented.
“The left is, you know, talking about how... the conservatives have gerrymandered these districts and this and that in order to get to a pre-determined outcome,” said Normand. “Wow. The left is at it again. They’re going to go right back and do this... do this as it relates to admissions.”
In the court’s opinion, Roberts argues that “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
Students for Fair Admission, the group that brought lawsuits against Harvard and UNC, argued that the institutions used affirmative action “to hide intentional discrimination against Asian Americans.”
“Higher ed has known about this case coming down the pike and has been trying to craft… exotic ways of circumventing what they anticipated this ruling to be, one in a very overt way,” said Normand. “They’re eliminating standardized testing requirements. Because that provides objective data, outcomes that can be easily compared amongst the races, ethnic group or otherwise, to see whether or not there’s an overrepresentation of underperforming students being allowed to attend high performing universities, thereby creating a discriminatory impact.”
While the majority of the court agree with Roberts, Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion that affirmative action helps increase diversity at college campuses. This is important in a society that is already segregated, she said.
“Although progress has been slow and imperfect, race-conscious college admissions policies have advanced the Constitution’s guarantee of equality and have promoted Brown’s vision of a Nation with more inclusive schools,” Said Sotomayor, the first Latina appointed to the Supreme Court. Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits. In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”
Jackson, the first Black woman appointed to the court, concurred with Sotomayor.
“Gulf-sized race-based gaps exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens,” she said. “They were created in the distant past, but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations. Every moment these gaps persist is a moment in which this great country falls short of actualizing one of its foundational principles – the “self-evident” truth that all of us are created equal.”
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson also condemned the ruling in a statement this week.
“We will not allow hate-inspired people in power to turn back the clock and undermine our hard-won victories. The tricks of America’s dark past will not be tolerated. Let me be clear – affirmative action exists because we cannot rely on colleges, universities, and employers to enact admissions and hiring practices that embrace diversity, equity and inclusion. Race plays an undeniable role in shaping the identities of and quality of life for Black Americans. In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court has displayed a willful ignorance of our reality,” he said.
However, the majority opinion argued that the system was not working for everyone.
“Justice Sotomayor apparently believes that race-conscious admission programs can somehow increase the chances that members of certain races (blacks and Hispanics) are admitted without decreasing the chances of admission for members of other races (Asians),” said a footnote. “This simply defies mathematics.”
Normand said he’s seen affirmative action practices contribute to racial and ethnic divides on campuses, such as schools holding separate ceremonies for different racial groups.
“Am I living in a time warp?” he asked. “I thought the argument at one point in time was that that was bad. That’s no good. That’s horrible. We need to come together. Judge me by the content of my character, but not the color of my skin.”
Related
Related
