Wow. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissent.
pic.twitter.com/ica3ED6LZq
— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 29, 2023
Posted on 06/29/2023 10:18:40 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
As RedState reported earlier, the United States Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote Thursday that the race-based college admissions processes used by Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) violate the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, effectively striking down the use of affirmative action programs in college admissions.
In Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s dissenting opinion in the UNC case, Jackson, who was nominated by President Joe Biden to the Supreme Court in part based on a campaign promise to nominate a black woman, accused the court’s conservative majority of “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness,” proclaiming that the Justices “detached” themselves from “this country’s actual past and present experiences,” while lecturing the “ostrich-like” members about so-called “lived experiences”:
Wow. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson dissent.
pic.twitter.com/ica3ED6LZq— Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 29, 2023
In his concurrence with the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas responded accordingly to Jackson’s dissent. Here are some noteworthy excerpts:
Accordingly, JUSTICE JACKSON’s race-infused world view falls flat at each step. Individuals are the sum of their unique experiences, challenges, and accomplishments. What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them. And their race is not to blame for everything—good or bad—that happens in their lives. A contrary, myopic world view based on individuals’ skin color to the total exclusion of their personal choices is nothing short of racial determinism.
JUSTICE JACKSON then builds from her faulty premise to call for action, arguing that courts should defer to “experts” and allow institutions to discriminate on the basis of race. Make no mistake: Her dissent is not a vanguard of the in-nocent and helpless. It is instead a call to empower privileged elites, who will “tell us [what] is required to level the playing field” among castes and classifications that they alone can divine. Post, at 26; see also post, at 5–7 (GORSUCH, J., concurring) (explaining the arbitrariness of these classifications). Then, after siloing us all into racial castes and pitting those castes against each other, the dissent somehow believes that we will be able—at some undefined point—to “march forward together” into some utopian vision. Post, at 26 (opinion of JACKSON, J.). Social movements that invoke these sorts of rallying cries, historically, have ended disastrously.
Unsurprisingly, this tried-and-failed system defies both law and reason. Start with the obvious: If social reorganization in the name of equality may be justified by the mere fact of statistical disparities among racial groups, then that reorganization must continue until these disparities are fully eliminated, regardless of the reasons for the disparities and the cost of their elimination. If blacks fail a test at higher rates than their white counterparts (regardless of whether the reason for the disparity has anything at all to do with race), the only solution will be race-focused measures. If those measures were to result in blacks failing at yet higher rates, the only solution would be to double down. In fact, there would seem to be no logical limit to what the government may do to level the racial playing field—outright wealth transfers, quota systems, and racial preferences would all seem permissible. In such a system, it would not matter how many innocents suffer race-based injuries; all that would matter is reaching the race-based goal.
Worse, the classifications that JUSTICE JACKSON draws are themselves race-based stereotypes. She focuses on two hypothetical applicants, John and James, competing for admission to UNC. John is a white, seventh-generation legacy at the school, while James is black and would be the first in his family to attend UNC. Post, at 3. JUSTICE JACKSON argues that race-conscious admission programs are necessary to adequately compare the two applicants.
As an initial matter, it is not clear why James’s race is the only factor that could encourage UNC to admit him; his status as a first-generation college applicant seems to contextualize his application. But, setting that aside, why is it that John should be judged based on the actions of his great great-great-grandparents? And what would JUSTICE JACKSON say to John when deeming him not as worthy of admission: Some statistically significant number of white people had advantages in college admissions seven generations ago, and you have inherited their incurable sin?
The full opinion can be read here. Thomas’ full response to Jackson starts on page 97.
Flashback: Justice Clarence Thomas Cements ‘Legend’ Status With One Very On-Point Quip About the MSM
Biden nominated a black woman who doesn’t know what a woman is. Ironic ain’t it
She’s not even a middle-tier mind.
And living proof of the stupidity of AA hiring.
We’ve been GIVING black people white people’s money and power for 60 years in order to level outcomes, and it has only made the level difference larger. When can we expect that doing the same thing over and over again will produce some different outcome?
Rofl!
Affirmative action is merely one method which the leftist power elites have of keeping middle-class climbers from taking their places at the top. Give away their money, power and futures to people who haven’t earned it.
It’s good that Thomas is there to confront her. It is not an equal battle of the minds.
———————+
You are so right. It’s not even a contest as to who is intellectually superior.
Justice Thomas runs rings around her.
She can’t even define (or won’t) what the differences between a man and a woman are, and she’s lecturing US on racial discrimination?
She has no business being on that Court.
His response should be written in stone-
“ Jackson is a biden AA hire. ”
Just more proof that affirmative action fails society.
“What matters is not the barriers they face, but how they choose to confront them.”
“But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward.” - Rocky Balboa
She had a privileged upbringing as well.
I can’t slam Ketanji’s opinion because it’s heartfelt, but she says, “Deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
That’s true but the Supreme Court deals with the law.
Also, she acknowledges that “formal race-linked legal barriers are gone”, but does she realize that affirmative action laws are legal barriers to equality as well.
Whites are now being discriminated against by our very powerful media. The books are balanced. The ball’s now in the black’s court. They need to show strength rather than ask for more accommodation.
“Not an equal battle of the minds”
Kind of like a Prius playing chicken with a Kenworth.
Clarence Thomas is one of m favorite justices.
She cannot define what a woman is. She needs to be asked to define what a minority is.
She will have to him-haw around that one too since whites are only 13% of the world population. Whites are a minority in many major cities in the US. Where are the boundaries drawn?
Then the clincher - What is a black person? Oh, that’s easy. It’s anyone descended from Africa. Well, golly gee....that would mean everyone.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/economics/how-many-black-people-are-in-the-world
“If you believe that “black” is as simply defined as a person of African descent, then the total number of black people in the world is about 7.8 billion (2020). Every person alive now, and every person who has ever lived is of African ancestry. “
EC
It would seem rare that one person on the court blasts another so much, but Jackson is a black racist and needed blasted.
Justice Thomas is a national treasure.
Affirmative Action Jackson has no expectations of blacks. She thinks blacks are stupid savages incapable of getting ahead.
Reading further:
“Whatever their skin color, today’s youth simply are not responsible for instituting the segregation of the 20th century, and they do not shoulder the moral debts of their ancestors. Our Nation should not punish today’s youth for the sins of the past.” - Justice Thomas
“Reparations” are dead in the water. Hit at the waterline, right in the ammo bunker.
Jackson has neither the elegance or clarity that we used to see in judicial opinions. This underscores in one brief illustration how Affirmative Action decisions erode the very institutions they claim to enhance. Here, it is the Supreme Court itself that has lost a little lustre.
at page 48:
“JUSTICE JACKSON took no part in the consideration or decision of the case in No. 20–1199.”
Except for the fact that that is socialism, plain and simple.
This was great on Justice Thomas’ part. Unfortunately we are stuck with KBJ for life.
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