White House rebukes Supreme Court Justice for race comments

When Abigail Fisher, now 25 and a graduate of LSU, was rejected from University of Texas at Austin in 2008, she filed a lawsuit claiming her application was denied because she is not black.

The liberal justices such as Justice Sonia Sotomayor are fighting in defense of the policy, stating her own benefit from the policy when she was admitted to Princeton University.

Last time, the Court sent the case back to an appeals court, but its return gives the justices another opportunity to reverse years of precedent and rule that racial preferences in public schools violate the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

In the Supreme Court’s previous decision, it left intact the finding that race can be a factor when absolutely necessary to obtain diversity as the end goal. Shortly after Scalia’s comments first circulated on social media, the hashtag #BlackTexasEx was born, referring to the university’s Texas Exes alumni organization. It would have a ripple effect in other areas of American life like diversity efforts in the private sector with contracts and jobs – and the Supreme Court must not allow that to happen.

“They’re being pushed into schools that are too advanced for them”, Scalia said Wednesday of minority students accepted under affirmative action programs.

The Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia “racist” after the justice made controversial comments about African Americans.

The case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, involves a white woman who was not admitted to the college.

On Wednesday, the court heard the latest challenge to the policy at the University of Texas at Austin, which considers race as one of many factors in admissions. “Maybe it ought to have fewer“, Scalia continued. I think what experience shows… is that now is not the time and this is not the case to roll back student diversity in America.

During oral arguments, the attorney arguing for the University of Texas made the point that it is unacceptable to have a system where minorities go to separate and inferior schools.

“I’m just not impressed by the fact the University of Texas may have fewer black students”.

Scalia, however, questioned whether UT needs to increase its black student population – which now makes up about 4 percent of the student body and has not grown in a decade.

Sigal Alon has studied class-based affirmative action as an associate professor at Tel Aviv University and author of the book “Race, Class, and Affirmative Action“.