Supreme Court Ruling

I thought I would share in case anyone hadn't heard about this.

The Supreme Court ruled (5-4) that schools cannot use race as a factor for enrollment.

Supreme Court Justice John G. Edwards said, "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race."

Clarence Thompson, the court's only African American justice, said he agreed with former Justice Harlen, when he said (in regards to the Plessy vs. Ferguson case), "Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens."

Former justice Henry Blackmun, a proponent of affirmative action said,
"I yield to no one in my earnest hope that the time will come when an "affirmative action" program is unnecessary and is, in truth, only a relic of the past. I would hope that we could reach this stage within a decade, at the most. But the story of Brown v. Board of Education, (1954), decided almost a quarter of a century ago, suggests that that hope is a slim one. At some time, however, beyond any period of what some would claim is only transitional inequality, the United States must and will reach a stage of maturity where action along this line is no longer necessary. Then persons will be regarded as persons, and discrimination of the type we address today will be an ugly feature of history that is instructive, but that is behind us."

This was in 1977-1978, regarding Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. 30 years later, one would hope that we have reached a time in society when affirmative action is a "relic of the past" and we can treat those of minorities as equals, not as special cases, as if they have a handicap, who need our help. I know that racism is not (and probably never will be) eradicated, but let's have a color-blind government, based upon a color-blind Constitution, to lead the way!



I didn't originally intend to use a bunch of quotes, but I found them pretty interesting. I'm probably preaching to the choir here, so to speak, but I thought this was pertinent to us as college students, as it could affect us in the future.


Elizabeth Hutchins, Treasurer