Justice Thomas Says Court Should Have Gutted Affirmative Action [View all]
Source: NPR
Justice Thomas Says Court Should Have Gutted Affirmative Action
by Eyder Peralta
June 24, 201312:26 PM
In a fiery concurring opinion (pdf), Justice Clarence Thomas made it clear that the Supreme Court did not go far enough, when it decided Fisher v. University of Texas this morning.
As Mark reported, in a 7-1 ruling, the court skirted the big issues and decided to send the case back to a lower court, asking it to give more scrutiny to UT's race-conscious admissions program.
Thomas argued a very basic case: The government should only consider race when there is a "pressing public necessity." In Thomas' view that means the state can only consider race "to provide a bulwark against anarchy, or to prevent violence."
Affirmative action, he argued, hardly meets those standards. What's more, he said, just as the court decided that discrimination was unconstitutional when the country set up "separate-but-equal" schools, it should also conclude that it is wrong when universities include race in their admissions decisions.
Read more: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/06/24/195182864/justice-thomas-says-court-should-have-gutted-affirmative-action?ft=1&f=1001
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