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What Diversity Means in College Admissions Case
Jordan Rubin -
(Bloomberg) -- Justice Clarence Thomas said he doesn’t “have a clue” what diversity means as the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday over eliminating race in college admissions.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the formal group photograph at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. The court opened its new term Monday with a calendar already full of high-profile clashes, including two cases that could end the use of race in college admissions.© Bloomberg
(Bloomberg) -- Justice Clarence Thomas said he doesn’t “have a clue” what diversity means as the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday over eliminating race in college admissions.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during the formal group photograph at the Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. The court opened its new term Monday with a calendar already full of high-profile clashes, including two cases that could end the use of race in college admissions.© Bloomberg
“I’ve heard the word diversity quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” he told an attorney representing the University of North Carolina who tried to explain the educational benefits of diversity in defending the school’s admissions program.
Thomas, the court’s second Black justice and a longtime affirmative action critic, said he didn’t “put much stock” in North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park’s argument “because I’ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation too.”
Read More: Ivy-Educated Thomas and Sotomayor Divide on Affirmative Action
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The high court is hearing a pair of challenges Monday to the programs at UNC and Harvard that threaten the future of race-conscious admissions that the justices have upheld over the decades.
Thomas, who was admitted to Yale Law School when it had a robust affirmative action program, has argued that preferences stigmatize Black people. Attending seminaries in the South and The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts before enrolling at Yale, Thomas has said he believes affirmative action diminished his achievements at the Ivy League law school.
“As much as it stung to be told that I’d done well in the seminary despite my race, it was far worse to feel that I was now at Yale because of it,” Thomas wrote in his 2007 memoir, My Grandfather’s Son.
Former President George H.W. Bush bristled at the notion that Thomas’ high-court appointment was race-based, saying he picked “the best man for the job on the merits. And the fact he’s minority, so much the better.” DUH OH THATS WHAT AFFIRMITIVE ACTION MEANS
Conservative Supreme Court justices are dragging the court deeper into a 'crisis of legitimacy': editorial
Raw Story -
By Tom Boggioni
Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito (Photos via AFP)© provided by RawStory
In a blunt-talking editorial from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the editors took two of the most conservative members of the Supreme Court to task for doing little to halt the slide in the court's credibility that has been in freefall after it became a 6-3 conservative majority.
Specifically, they cited Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito over a Thomas ruling last week, and a report on Alito dating back to his confirmation in 2005.
In the case of Thomas, last week he interceded on behalf of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is balking at having to testify in an election corruption case in Georgia related to Trump's phone call to Georgia's secretary of state.
Regarding his ruling temporarily granting Graham relief, the editors wrote, "... as with anything regarding that election, having Thomas involved in any way automatically looks suspect because of his wife, right-wing activist Ginni Thomas. In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, Ginni Thomas flooded Trump’s inner circle with unhinged texts calling Joe Biden’s election a 'coup,' suggesting the Biden 'crime family' should face 'military tribunals for sedition,' and generally encouraging resistance to accepting the election outcome."
The editors added, "In what universe is it OK for Justice Thomas not to recuse himself from anything Jan. 6-related when this is the kind of pillow talk he goes home to at night?"
As for Alito, he was scorched for lying his way onto the court that led to his Dobbs's majority decision that gutted Roe v. Wade 17 years later.
With the New York Times reporting that Alito had assured Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) that he had no intention of overturning Roe, saying, "I am a believer in precedents. People would find I adhere to that,” the Post-Dispatch editors slammed him for his "mendacity."
"That mendacity is hardly a surprise, nor is Alito alone in it," they wrote. "All five conservative justices who voted in June to overturn Roe (Roberts concurred, but stopped short of endorsing full reversal) have at various times waxed on about the sanctity of precedent generally — and have, to varying degrees, offered assurance they weren’t going to go out of their way to flip Roe as soon as they had the votes to do it. Which, of course, is exactly what they did."
The editors also took a shot at Chief Justice John Roberts for acting like he doesn't understand why the court he heads has lost the confidence of the public.
With Roberts complaining, "I don't understand the connection between (Supreme Court) opinions that people disagree with and the legitimacy of the Court," the editors explained, "As we noted then, his frustration is misplaced. These latest developments further illustrate why."
Thomas, the court’s second Black justice and a longtime affirmative action critic, said he didn’t “put much stock” in North Carolina Solicitor General Ryan Park’s argument “because I’ve heard similar arguments in favor of segregation too.”
Related video: 'Don't have a clue what it means': Clarence Thomas asks for clarity on what 'diversity' is
Duration 2:12
View on Watch
Read More: Ivy-Educated Thomas and Sotomayor Divide on Affirmative Action
Childbirth Injury Lawyers - No Fees Unless We Win - Call NOVA Injury Law Today
The high court is hearing a pair of challenges Monday to the programs at UNC and Harvard that threaten the future of race-conscious admissions that the justices have upheld over the decades.
Thomas, who was admitted to Yale Law School when it had a robust affirmative action program, has argued that preferences stigmatize Black people. Attending seminaries in the South and The College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts before enrolling at Yale, Thomas has said he believes affirmative action diminished his achievements at the Ivy League law school.
“As much as it stung to be told that I’d done well in the seminary despite my race, it was far worse to feel that I was now at Yale because of it,” Thomas wrote in his 2007 memoir, My Grandfather’s Son.
Former President George H.W. Bush bristled at the notion that Thomas’ high-court appointment was race-based, saying he picked “the best man for the job on the merits. And the fact he’s minority, so much the better.” DUH OH THATS WHAT AFFIRMITIVE ACTION MEANS
Conservative Supreme Court justices are dragging the court deeper into a 'crisis of legitimacy': editorial
Raw Story -
By Tom Boggioni
Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito (Photos via AFP)© provided by RawStory
In a blunt-talking editorial from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the editors took two of the most conservative members of the Supreme Court to task for doing little to halt the slide in the court's credibility that has been in freefall after it became a 6-3 conservative majority.
Specifically, they cited Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito over a Thomas ruling last week, and a report on Alito dating back to his confirmation in 2005.
In the case of Thomas, last week he interceded on behalf of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who is balking at having to testify in an election corruption case in Georgia related to Trump's phone call to Georgia's secretary of state.
Regarding his ruling temporarily granting Graham relief, the editors wrote, "... as with anything regarding that election, having Thomas involved in any way automatically looks suspect because of his wife, right-wing activist Ginni Thomas. In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, Ginni Thomas flooded Trump’s inner circle with unhinged texts calling Joe Biden’s election a 'coup,' suggesting the Biden 'crime family' should face 'military tribunals for sedition,' and generally encouraging resistance to accepting the election outcome."
Related video: Supreme Court hears affirmative action casesDuration 2:15
The editors added, "In what universe is it OK for Justice Thomas not to recuse himself from anything Jan. 6-related when this is the kind of pillow talk he goes home to at night?"
As for Alito, he was scorched for lying his way onto the court that led to his Dobbs's majority decision that gutted Roe v. Wade 17 years later.
With the New York Times reporting that Alito had assured Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) that he had no intention of overturning Roe, saying, "I am a believer in precedents. People would find I adhere to that,” the Post-Dispatch editors slammed him for his "mendacity."
"That mendacity is hardly a surprise, nor is Alito alone in it," they wrote. "All five conservative justices who voted in June to overturn Roe (Roberts concurred, but stopped short of endorsing full reversal) have at various times waxed on about the sanctity of precedent generally — and have, to varying degrees, offered assurance they weren’t going to go out of their way to flip Roe as soon as they had the votes to do it. Which, of course, is exactly what they did."
The editors also took a shot at Chief Justice John Roberts for acting like he doesn't understand why the court he heads has lost the confidence of the public.
With Roberts complaining, "I don't understand the connection between (Supreme Court) opinions that people disagree with and the legitimacy of the Court," the editors explained, "As we noted then, his frustration is misplaced. These latest developments further illustrate why."
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