White House rebukes Supreme Court Justice for race comments

But the makeup of the Supreme Court has changed significantly since 2003, and the Court’s decision to revisit the Fisher case this term has led some supporters of affirmative action to fear a tide-change on this issue. By the end of an unusually long and tense argument, a majority of the justices appeared unpersuaded that the plan was constitutional.

During oral arguments, the attorney arguing for the University of Texas made the point that it is unacceptable to have a system where minorities go to separate and inferior schools. “I don’t think it stands to reason that it’s a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible”.

On Wednesday, the court heard the latest challenge to the policy at the University of Texas at Austin, which considers race as one of many factors in admissions.

The court will rule in the case by June. Trump has made several controversial comments but most recently, the candidate suggested blocking all Muslims from immigrating to the U.S. “It’s as if nothing had happened”.

The conversation around affirmative action at universities has heated up as the Supreme Court of the United States heard arguments once again in the case of a white woman not admitted to the University of Texas at Austin.

“Scalia should check out some actual numbers”, Schulman added, posting a National Science Foundation list of the schools graduating the most black science and engineering doctorate recipients, which includes a number of historically black colleges and universities, as well as Harvard and MIT.

Scalia may have been referring to the so-called mismatch theory, which contends some minority students are harmed if they are admitted to a college or law school when their test scores are considerably below their classmates. Griswold wrote yesterday, “No, Scalia wasn’t actually saying he believed that blacks should be content to just go to lesser schools, he was asking about others who had argued as much”.

Three longstanding critics of racial preferences – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Scalia – signaled they were poised to vote to invalidate the Texas program.

“What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?” Fisher had sought admission under the second part of the plan. The university’s current freshman class is 22 percent Hispanic and 4.5 percent African-American.

Thomas, who has been a staunch opponent of affirmative action policies, remained silent during the arguments.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg seemed to agree. This works only because Texas neighborhoods are so segregated that many high schools are predominantly white or predominantly minority. The opinion on this case will be one to watch. He has not asked a question from the bench since February 2006. That could mean that the Texas admissions plan is in peril and that affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation may be in trouble as well. For the other quarter, the school reviews more than a dozen factors, including race. In 2013 the court reached what Justice Stephen Breyer characterized Wednesday as a compromise, sending the case back to a federal appeals court for closer scrutiny.