Is Affirmative Action On the Way Out? Opportunities Still Endure
The Supreme Court’s latest affirmative action case reminds me of a married couple I know who both happen to be attorneys of color.
He’s a U.S.-born Black lawyer. She’s an Afro Dominican and Puerto Rican-born Black American lawyer.
They both vote similarly as liberal Democrats, as he describes them. But they sometimes surprise each other on such sensitive issues as the law and civil rights.
“We’re both patriotic but I can’t help but remember that America as a land with a history of oppression,” he said. “She tends to see it as a land of opportunity.
That’s a profound point that sounds even more profound the more I think about it.
It comes to mind now as the Supreme Court begins its new session with yet another affirmative action case on its docket that could end affirmative action for college admissions.
A long trail of cases since the 1970s has established that race can be used as one of several factors in deciding who gets admitted, as long as it’s not the only factor.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor famously concluded in her opinion in the landmark 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger case that affirmative action in college admissions is justifiable, but not forever: “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences (in student body diversity) will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”
While it never has been clear where she found that “25 years from now” goal, Chief Justice John Roberts’ very conservative court appears to be teed up and ready to do away with the preferences.
This time, the court is set to hear two cases filed by Students for Fair Admissions on behalf of Asian American students who claim they were passed over for admission to Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, essentially because they didn’t belong to the right minority group.
...continued
(c) 2022 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.
