Supreme Court... Tougher Scrutiny of Affirmative Action Plans

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Lib
erty -vs- Tyranny


A perfectly sensible and right decision by the SCOTUS... Even given the fairly obvious left bias throughout the article.

USA TODAY - WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court drew new limits on colleges' use of affirmative action Monday, saying that although racial preferences remain constitutional, they are permissible only if schools can first show that there are "no workable race-neutral alternatives."

The court's 7-1 decision, written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, suggests that public schools can use affirmative action only as a last resort for creating a diverse student body, and raises the prospect that colleges will face a tougher burden of justifying them in the future.

But the justices stopped short of issuing a broader decision either fully cementing or eliminating schools' ability to take account of an applicant's race.

Kennedy wrote that public universities could adopt affirmative action plans only if they can demonstrate that "no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the benefits of educational diversity."

The decision came in a closely watched challenge to the University of Texas at Austin's admissions policy that is based, in part, on applicants' race. But the justices declined to decide whether the university's program met that tough new standard.

Instead, they said that a lower federal court had acted too deferentially by, in essence, taking the university's word for the fact that such preferences were necessary. They instructed the lower court to hear the case again, and this time to require the university to prove that it had no other way to assemble a diverse student body.

"Strict scrutiny does not permit a court to accept a school's assertion that its admissions process uses race in a permissible way without a court giving close analysis to the evidence of how the process works in practice," Kennedy wrote. "The university must prove that the means chosen by the university to attain diversity are narrowly tailored to that goal."

Kennedy was joined by the court's conservative justice and two of its liberals, Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Elena Kagan did not participate in the case.

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The case hearkened back to 1950, when Heman Sweatt sued the university after being denied admission because he was black. As his attorney, Sweatt chose Thurgood Marshall, who would go on to become the high court's first black justice. He won the case, marking the first time the court had ordered a black student admitted to an all-white institution.

Since then, colleges and universities have become more integrated. In Grutter v. Bollinger, the court's 5-4 decision upholding the Michigan law school's limited use of affirmative action, O'Connor predicted, "The court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today."

That case wasn't a slam dunk for the civil rights movement. At the same time, the court ruled 6-3 against the undergraduate school's more numerical system of racial preferences. And O'Connor's decision upholding the law school's racial preferences included a dissent from Kennedy, now the swing vote on the court.

"Preferment by race, when resorted to by the state, can be the most divisive of all policies, containing within it the potential to destroy confidence in the Constitution and in the idea of equality," Kennedy said then.

Four years later, in a decision that barred voluntary integration programs in the Seattle and Louisville public schools, Chief Justice John Roberts issued one of his most oft-quoted lines: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Two members of the court were being watched closely in this case: Justice Thomas, the lone black justice, who has written that his Yale Law School degree was devalued by racial preferences; and Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the lone Hispanic, whose recent book, My Beloved World, credits affirmative action for giving her access to Princeton and Yale.

In the end, the ruling was so narrow that both Thomas and Sotomayor signed on.

Kagan recused herself from the case, presumably because she was involved with it during her tenure as solicitor general at the Justice Department in 2009-10. {Read More}

Via: Memeorandum

Comments

  1. Les, Thomas Sowell wrote a powerful book in 1990 entitled, "Preferential Policies: An International Perspective". And, in it, he thoroughly examined the effects of affirmative action policies throughout a great number of countries that have attempted them. What was Mr. Sowell's overall assessment? He could not find one single instance of any group ever having gone from poverty to affluence predominantly through such political means (and even in the one instance - Malaysia - where there was a modicum of movement, that was more than offset by the violence which accrued). Yes, politics can and has played a pivotal role in other regards (voting rights, for example) but it is predominantly skills, industriousness, and savings which promulgate economic advancement. Thus spake Mr. Sowell anyway.

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    Replies
    1. I have a great of respect for Thomas Sowell. He is generally spot on. Of course many on the left choose to believe he is a shill for the conservatives. No doubt because he doesn't fit their template.Not surprising really.

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    2. An interesting stat from that book is the fact that 70% of the affirmative action students (most of them not from the inner city but from Pacific Palisades or "the valley") at Cal Berkeley in the '70s and '80s eventually flunked out. These same youngsters could have gone Cal State Fullerton or to Pacific and probably passed.

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  3. The court kicked it back implying there may be a better way of achieving affirmative action. It was a nod and a wink. Affirmative action appears to be slowly disappearing, but it's not dead yet. Conservatives do not realize what will come in it's place. We have to have more opportunity for more Americans to get a quality education. And that costs money.

    JMJ

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  4. At a time when restrictive voter laws are being passed in State Houses and challenged in the courts, for the Supreme Court to say Sec. 4 is outdated, is another example of conservatives denying reality. Lets see how long it takes for voting abuses to rise again, as they did in the last election. In a short time whites will become a minority and experience the inevitable discrimination from the majority. Then whites will be screaming for laws to protect them, but they will be living in a time when the Supreme Court has ruled that protection for minorities in the voting process, is unnecessary. Really? Me thinks the best and brightest (Supreme Court Justices) have no clue about human behavior. No surprise since they come from their Ivory towers of privileged white culture. The justices disdain for the protection of minority rights goes to the core of what we stand for in a most negative manner.

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    1. Your statement is more an indictment of all people in general than it is of the reasoning used by the SCOTUS in arriving at it's decision IMNHO.

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    2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    3. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    4. Really? Explain how 150,000 legal voters were unable to vote because of those restrictive voter laws, just last election.

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    5. Who's been in power in this country since the beginning and up to now? Blacks? Asians? Mexicans?
      Alito, Roberts, Scalia, are they not the from the Ivy league privileged white class?
      Where is your explanation for how 100's of thousands of legal voters lost their vote because of voter laws Republicans passed during the last election?

      Delete
    6. Perhaps you could provide a link to a reputable and unbiased source that supports your assertion Anon. I know I would like such data and suspect dmarks would as well.

      Delete
    7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    8. Now your being an idiot, figures.

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    9. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    10. dmarks. I do not dig these guys up. In fact I don't even go looking for them.

      Many of them are simply attention starved souls whose basement doen't provide them the attention they crave.

      So, they find site to visit were they THINK they are having an impact and getting the much needed attention they so desperately want.

      I humor them from time to time. ;-)

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  5. "outdated"

    I believe that is the term Roberts used

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  6. Whether or not it is the anti Semite Hitler baby or not I'm not sure. I suspect it is, but frankly I don't give it much thought. Sick pathetic individuals like it do not deserve my or anyone else's attention.

    I can say I must have hit its nerve again because it posted several comments recently that are unpublishable.

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  7. Keep proving how sick you are by agreeing with such a dolt
    Why not publish my comment about his lies, like I said Scalia was 300 years old? And where did I mention sports?
    You two are twisted fuck heads, I suppose to compensate for how stupid you are,
    By the way if you are not aware that legal voters lost their vote due to restrictive voting laws, then you are to stupid to debate vanything with anyways. And Roberts did say "outdated" so my comment was right on
    By fuck head, it's so nice to have you prove me correct and a mile smarter than both of you put together

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  8. The above comment is indicative of Anon's comments that do not get posted. Albeit this example is rather mild actually.

    Feeling sorry for Anon I wanted to allow him the opportnty to show all comers to this humble site exactly what his character and level of intellegence is.

    Being the kind soul that I am I also wan't to give him the attention and notoriety he craves.

    Now, Anon, I hope you appreciate my benevolence in allowing you to expose yourself for who and what you are. Having afforded you this opportunity for public masturbation I must now inform you that...

    You are THROUGH here. You need not return and leave comments as your chances of getting published again are nil, nada, zip, zero...

    Your cellar awaits you.

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  9. "...privileged white class..."

    The guy's a walking hate-crime waiting to happen. Stupid, nasty as all get-out, and full of ill intent.

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    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He is one very disturbed individual. His obsession with me and this site goes back at least two years. It is akin to the wd/DS obsession with Will and his Contra O'Reilly site.Both are creepy, but Anon is much more pathetic, and likely to one day go off the deep end.

      Anon craves attention, it is likely he was ignored as a child by his parents and a social outcast in school. Anon's greatest need is to be noticed, and given a platform from which he can spread his lies and delusions. It is my desire he receives no more attention at RN USA. Of any kind.

      So, let's not mention, discuss, or ever again acknowledge his pathetic existence.

      Thanks,
      The Management

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