Supreme Court to Finally Rule Against Affirmative Action of Any Type

Ready or Not Actions to Redress Discrimination Are Going to Be Ruled Unconstitutional

The proponents of Civil Rights and using government power to end discrimination have been both Democrats and Republicans.  Laws that prohibited discrimination based on race were passed on a bi-partisan basis.  Opposition to such laws were also bi-partisan, and that opposition was from Conservatives.  In some cases the opposition was principled and in many cases the opposition was the result of racial bias.

Simply ending discrimination did not end the damage of discrimination.  Affirmative action laws were enacted to help offset the damage done by decades of discrimination.  The result was that suddenly Conservatives determined that using the law to prohibit discrimination was not all that bad an idea after all, that civil rights laws should be used to protect the majority.  While Conservatives opposed civil rights legislation that protected minorities, they found they had no problem and in fact were avid supporters of legal action to protect the majority.

As the Supreme Court has been slowly taken over by Conservatives, the Court has ruled against Affirmative Action.  It is now poised to once and for all end an action that seek to redress the huge damage done by racial discrimination.  It will rule on a case in Texas where a person claims they were discriminated against as part of an Affirmative Action program.

Opponents of affirmative action hope that the current court, more conservative than the one that made the 2003 decision, will rule out the use of race.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who wrote the 5 to 4 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger , was replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who in past decisions has opposed the use of race in education decisions. And one of the court’s liberals, Justice Elena Kagan, has recused herself from the Texas case, presumably because of her previous job as President Obama’s solicitor general.

There should be little suspense over the outcome of this case.  The Supreme Court, dominated by Conservatives, will rule that any and all Affirmative Action programs are Unconstitutional.  Whether or not minorities can overcome the residual racism (or in some cases residual traditionalism where institutions act in a prejudicial manner not because they are racist, but because they have always favored certain groups) and prosper without Affirmative Action is no longer the issue.  They will have to, those programs will no longer be in place.