Clarence Thomas Contends for Genuine Equality

In June of 2013, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas, an affirmative action case. The court sent the case back to the lower court for reconsideration “because Texas had failed to demonstrate that affirmative action was necessary to achieve a diverse student body—a requirement of the Grutter v. Bollinger decision in 2003. It was a win for foes of affirmative action—albeit one that won’t actually end the practice.”

Clarence Thomas concurred with the decision but went on to blast affirmative action in the first place. In addition to the statements we already have considered, He wrote,

Attaining diversity for its own sake is a nonstarter.
[T]he argument that educational benefits justify racial discrimination was advanced in support of racial segregation in the 1950’s, but emphatically rejected by this Court.

Moreover, Thomas made these pointed statements.

The University asserts, for instance, that the diversity obtained through its discriminatory admissions program prepares its students to become leaders in a diverse society.…The segregationists likewise defended segregation on the ground that it provided more leadership opportunities for blacks.…There is no principled distinction between the University’s assertion that diversity yields educational benefits and the segregationists’ assertion that segregation yielded those same benefits.
The Fourteenth Amendment views racial bigotry as an evil to be stamped out, not as an excuse for perpetual racial tinkering by the State.
The worst forms of racial discrimination in this Nation have always been accompanied by straight-faced representations that discrimination helped minorities.…Slaveholders argued that slavery was a “positive good” that civilized blacks and elevated them in every dimension of life.…A century later, segregationists similarly asserted that segregation was not only benign, but good for black students.

Thomas’ entire opinion in the case is available here.

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