Harry Reid: Justice Scalia’s Comments on Affirmative Action Were ‘Racist’

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid on Thursday slammed controversial comments Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said a day earlier that suggested some black students would benefit from being at a “slower-track school”.

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.

Consideration of race in college admissions is again in line of fire at the Supreme Court, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015, for the second time in three years, in the case of Fisher, a white Texas woman who was rejected for admission at the University of Texas.

With no clear decision apparent after Wednesday’s latest arguments, Kennedy hinted that he might be in favor of sending the case back for a third time to a lower court.

This viewpoint by one of the nation’s top judicial voices comes as colleges across America are dealing with high levels of racial incidents and confrontations on campus. In 2012, she sued on the grounds she was passed over for being white, that affirmative action cost her admission at UT. “Maybe it ought to have fewer” black students, he said of UT.

Their study found that black students with the same entering credentials were actually more likely to become lawyers if they went to a higher ranked law school than a lower ranked law school. Justice Elena Kagan didn’t say a word, because she has recused herself, having worked on the case as solicitor general.

The court is weighing a case challenging the university’s use of race as a factor in admissions.

The case, which originated in 2008, hinges on the remaining quarter of applicants, who are admitted through a “holistic” evaluation (one of the considered factors is race).

“I don’t think the solution to the problems with student body diversity can be to set up a system in which not only are minorities going to separate schools, they’re going to inferior schools”, Garre told Scalia.

“Scalia’s argument is an age-old argument”, said Yoel Haile, a public policy graduate student at UC Berkeley, “that dates back to slavery, where its fundamental assumption is black intellectual inferiority when it comes to education and knowledge”.

As Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s retirement does not seem imminent, a University of Wisconsin-Madison research assistant is hoping for his death. A ruling against the University of Texas could endanger affirmative action programs at colleges and universities across the country.