Global Courant
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas dismantled fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s “race-infused worldview” as part of the Supreme Court’s decision Thursday to ban considerations of race — otherwise known as affirmative action — in the college admissions process .
Thomas, the second black judge to sit on the bench, sided with the 6-3 majority ruling on Thursday, saying the court’s decision “sees college admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a certain racial mix in their starting classes.”
Thomas wrote a concurring opinion “to offer an original defense of the color-blind Constitution” and to “clarify that all forms of racial discrimination—including so-called affirmative action—are prohibited under the Constitution; and to effects of all such discrimination.”
In doing so, Thomas denounced Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissenting opinion, calling the ruling a “truly a tragedy for all of us” with “ostrich-like” logic.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
SUPREME COURT REJECTS CONFIRMATIVE ACTION ON UNIVERSITIES USING RACE IN ADMISSION DECISIONS
While Judge Jackson seems to think that her race-based theory can somehow benefit everyone, the unchanging fact is that ‘every time the government uses racial criteria to ‘bring the races together’, someone is disfellowshipped and the disfellowshipped person suffers an injury only because of his or her race,” Thomas wrote.
“Justice Jackson seems to have no answer — no explanation at all — for the people who will bear that burden. For example, how would Justice Jackson explain the need for race-based preferences to the Chinese student who has worked hard all his life, only to to be refused admission to university in part because of his skin color?” Thomas wondered.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was unable to define the word “woman” when asked at her hearing last year. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“With the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment, the people of our nation proclaimed that the law should not sort citizens by race. It is this principle that the drafters of the Fourteenth Amendment adopted in the aftermath of the Civil War to reaffirm the promise of equality among the law,” wrote Thomas.
And it is this principle that has guaranteed a nation of equal citizens the privileges or immunities of citizenship and the equal protection of the laws. Now to dismiss it as “two-dimensional flatness” is to relinquish a sacred trust to ensure that our “honored dead.” . . will not have died in vain,” Thomas said, quoting Judge Jackson and a portion of President Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
READ THE SUPREME COURT’S CONFIRMATIVE ACTION OPINION – APP USERS, CLICK HERE:
“Yet Justice Jackson would replace the founders’ second vision with an organizing principle based on race. In fact, in her view, almost all of life’s outcomes can be attributed without hesitation to race,” he continued.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photo of the Justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2021. (Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)
SUPREME COURT LEGAL RIGHTS THOMAS, SOTOMAYOR READ AFFIRMATIVE ACTION OPINIONS FROM BENCH IN RARE MOVEMENT
“Even in the segregated South where I grew up, individuals were not the sum of their skin color. Then, as now, not all differences are based on race; not all people are racist; and not all differences between individuals are attributable to To put it simply, “the fate of abstract categories of wealth statistics is not the same as the fate of a particular group of flesh-and-blood people,” Thomas said.
Even worse, Judge Jackson uses her broad observations about statistical relationships between race and selected measures of health, wealth and well-being to label all blacks as victims. Her desire to do so is unfathomable to me. I cannot deny the great achievements .of black Americans, including those who succeeded despite long expectations,” Thomas scolded.
Thomas said that “Justice Jackson’s race-drenched worldview falls flat with every step.”
“Individuals are the sum total of their unique experiences, challenges and achievements. It’s not about the barriers they face, but how they choose to face them. And their race isn’t to blame for anything – good or bad — that happens in their lives,” he said.
“An opposing, myopic worldview based on the skin color of individuals to the total exclusion of their personal choices is nothing short of racial determinism,” Thomas said.
“While I am painfully aware of the social and economic devastation that has befallen my race and all who are discriminated against, I remain in the abiding hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly articulated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. United States: That all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and should be treated equally before the law,” Thomas wrote.
The court’s landmark decision stemmed from lawsuits against two of the country’s most prestigious private and public universities: Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.
Both schools argued that their admissions standards have a greater social purpose, one that has been endorsed by the courts for decades: fostering a robust, intellectually diverse campus for future leaders.
But a student group of Asian Americans sued the schools, saying their admissions criteria discriminated with a “racial penalty,” holding them to a selectively higher standard than many black and Hispanic students.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
In a 6-3 decision, the court rejected the universities’ arguments, saying that using race as a factor in college admissions is a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the opinion of the majority that both Harvard and University of North Carolina admissions programs “lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives that justify the use of race, inevitably use race in a negative way, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful endpoints.”
“We’ve never had admissions programs work that way, and we won’t do it today,” he said.
Brianna Herlihy is a political writer for Fox News Digital.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22498543/ahawkins_20210503_4551_0009.jpg?w=150&resize=150,150&ssl=1 "Electrify America is the next big charging network to adopt Tesla’s “standard” EV plug")
