Yesterday the Supreme Court ducked out of a decision on an affirmative action case centering on the University of Texas’ admissions policy, tossing it back to a lower court for consideration.

In Clarence Thomas’ opinion, affirmative action is clearly discriminatory, comparing the U of Texas admissions policy to slavery.

From the Huffington Post:

“Slaveholders argued that slavery was a ‘positive good’ that civilized blacks and elevated them in every dimension of life,” Thomas wrote in his separate opinion on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. “A century later, segregationists similarly asserted that segregation was not only benign, but good for black students.”

Thomas cited Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case that led to the desegregation of public schools, in drawing a comparison between segregation and affirmative action.

“Following in these inauspicious footsteps, the University would have us believe that its discrimination is likewise benign. I think the lesson of history is clear enough: Racial discrimination is never benign,” he wrote in the 20-page opinion. “The University’s professed good intentions cannot excuse its outright racial discrimination any more than such intentions justified the now-denounced arguments of slaveholders and segregationists.”

Thomas contends that affirmative action does black and Hispanic students more harm than good, and that racial diversity has no educational benefit.

Read more at the Huffington Post

 

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