Posted on 01/17/2003 4:09:44 PM PST by TLBSHOW
White House Brief Stops Short of Bush Speech
January 17, 2003
Folks, I really don't relish the next words, sentences, and paragraphs, which you will read on this page or hear from my mouth in the audio links below. There is some angst today in the conservative legal community over the University of Michigan case and the brief filed by the Bush administration late Thursday night near the midnight deadline, and how this brief differs in scope from the president's amazing speech.
Now, the mainstream press, of course, is late to pick up on this. We have several wire reports, which I read on Friday's program that lead with lines like, "President Bush is siding with white students in the most sweeping affirmative action case…" And they don't think they're biased? President Bush is siding with white students? No, President Bush is siding with the Constitution. It's the Fourteenth Amendment, which is being largely ignored by those in the mainstream press. He's siding with the Constitution, not siding with white students or white people or white anybody.
That being said, our legal advisors here at the EIB Network and the Limbaugh Institute have read the brief filed by the Bush administration. We've studied it, and this position is not nearly as sweeping as that taken in the president's speech. In short, he does support overturning the policy of Michigan, but stops there and goes no further. The administration's brief contends that the admissions policy at Michigan does violate the Constitution, but the brief does not say that the use of race violates the Constitution. And that's the key.
Race-based anything violates the Constitution. No such discrimination is allowed, but the brief doesn't attack that, it only attacks the specific admissions policy at the University of Michigan. The Constitution does not outlaw all forms of discrimination, but it does prohibit discrimination based on race, and in some cases it discriminates or prohibits discrimination based on gender and religion.
The brief does not challenge racial preferences in college admissions. It accepts, in fact, the fact that race-based diversity is a constitutionally proper goal. So in the brief, as opposed to the speech the president made, the administration is not opposed to the goal, but merely Michigan's practice by which it was achieved.
Here is the upshot: The president's compelling speech certainly suggested he was taking on the whole issue of race-based preferences. This is why everybody was so excited. This is why you want a conservative in the White House, to stop a mess like affirmative action. It pits groups of people against each other and it stigmatizes people who benefit from it. There's nothing positive about it. The president's opponents predictably in their criticism certainly suggested that he was taking on the issue of race-based preferences.
After hearing the president speak, and from that reaction from the left, the press, pundits and all the rest of us concluded that Bush was challenging racial preferences in college admissions. But his administration's brief - I'm sorry to say, folks - doesn't do that.
Listen to Rush...
(…compare media reports of the president's position, with the actual brief) (…continue the legal analysis of the brief filed by the White House)
Read the Articles...
(AP: Bush Brief on Affirmative Action Due) (USA Today: White House to oppose Michigan policy of race-based admissions) (Reuters: Bush Lawyers Urge Top Court to Back White Students)
Read the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution...
Freedom Fighter
The mouths of envious Always find another door
While at the gates of paradise they
beat us down some more
But our mission’s set in stone
‘Cause the writing’s on the wall
I’ll scream it from the mountain tops
pride comes before a fall
So many thoughts to share
All this energy to give
Unlike those who hide the truth
I tell it like it is
If the truth will set you free
I feel sorry for your soul
Can’t you hear the ringing ‘cause
for you the bell tolls
I’m just a freedom fighter
No remorse
Raging on in holy war
Soon there’ll come a day
When you’re face to face with me
Face to face with me
Can’t you hear us coming?
People marching all around
Can’t you see we’re coming?
Close your eyes it’s over now
Can’t you hear us coming?
The fight has only just begun
Can’t you see we’re coming?
I’m just a freedom fighter
No remorse
Raging on in holy war
Soon there’ll come a day
When you’re face to face with me
Face to face with me
Of course the Amendments from number 11 on were not done by the Authors, so I suppose those authors may not have said what they meant. I.e., I was assuming that when the 14th speaks about citizens, I though they meant citizens. But if it is now common knowledge that citizens meant black citizens, I guess I’m just late to get into the know.
Assuming the other universe is "parallel" - how would one know the difference?
Huh?
Mr. Lincoln wouldn't even recognize the place, and they would arrest him if he showed up.......
Why would you have him arrested? Is he a Mexican, too?
Oh, geez, how original. Nobody has EVER said anything close to that before. You've REALLY hurt me to the bone.
And what kind of "bot" are you?
Oh, I remember: you're a HATE-BOT.
You seem to despise everything.
"The administration's brief contends that the admissions policy at Michigan does violate the Constitution, but the brief does not say that the use of race violates the Constitution."
Slap me and call me "Sally".
The case being tried is about the admissions policy at Michigan, but if Bush and Olsen do not waste their breath, and the Court's time, being redundant, they have caved?
The challenge to the admissions policy is based on the fact tyhat the University uses racial quotas. How is it that arguing that the University using racial quotas in their admissions policies is unconstitutional, NOT translate into arguing that the use of racial quotas violates the Constitution?
I'm no lawyer, but even I know that when you are trying a man for murder, you don't make global statements about the state of society, and why people murder. You discuss the facts relevant to the case before the Courts.
Not only that, but if the admission practices of Michigan are found to be unconstitutional, it establishes precedents for each individual State to challenge Federally mandated racial quotas in their State University system.
Imagine that, Bush coming out in favor of States having the ability to challenge the Federal government on State issues.
What the hell does this Bush guy think we are supposed to be?
A Republic?
LOL! Bait that nasty cliquish, racial trap........Yeahhhhhhhhhhh.
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