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The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action policies at Harvard and UNC.
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Justice Clarence Thomas joined the majority, declaring “The Constitution prevails.”
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Thomas said he’s aware of the obstacles faced by ‘my race,’ but ruled affirmative action was discriminatory.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas noted that he knows about the obstacles Black people in the US have faced as he ruled affirmative action should still be outlawed.
“While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination, I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: that all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law,” Thomas wrote.
Thomas declared “the Constitution prevails” in his opinion as the Supreme Court effectively outlawed affirmative action at US colleges and universities. In a 6-3 decision, the high court ruled that policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina were unconstitutional.
Thomas, who was the second Black justice appointed to the Supreme Court, wrote about the history of prejudice against Black people before moving on to famed Supreme Court cases like Brown v. Board of Education that did away with racist segregation policies.
Thomas then wrote affirmative action is also discrimination, calling the policies “rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in” Harvard and UNC’s “entering classes.”
“Those policies fly in the face of our colorblind Constitution and our Nation’s equality ideal,” he wrote. “In short, they are plainly — and boldly — unconstitutional.”
While Thomas’ conservative colleague Neil Gorsuch agreed, railing against “bureaucrats” his own opinion, liberal justices slammed the ruling.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — who is the other Black justice on the Supreme Court — called out the “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness” of her colleagues, writing in her dissent that “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Read the original article on Business Insider
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