In the recent past (prior to the conservative court) SCOTUS warned that AA was never intended to last forever and its days were numbered. Has the end come?
The most diverse Supreme Court ever confronts affirmative action
The most diverse group of Supreme Court justices in history will gather Monday to confront the issue that has vexed and deeply divided past courts: whether affirmative action in college admissions recognizes and nourishes a multicultural nation or impermissibly divides Americans by race.
The authority of college administrators to use race in a limited way to build a diverse student body has barely survived previous challenges. But even a defender of such policies, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, wrote in 2003 that racial preferences were not likely to be needed in 25 years. And a more dominant conservative majority is in place now.
It will be the first review by a Supreme Court on which White men do not make up the majority. The body has undergone an almost complete turnover since O’Connor’s prediction, and includes justices who say affirmative action programs directly shaped their lives.
The court now has two Black members — who seem to have opposite views of whether race-based policies are authorized by the Constitution. The court’s most senior member, Justice Clarence Thomas, has written more about the topic than any other justice, and he is an outspoken opponent: “racial paternalism … is as poisonous and pernicious as any other form of discrimination,” he has written.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s newest member and its first Black woman, staked out her position on just her second day on the bench: There is no reason to believe the Constitution forbids race-conscious policies. [In a pretty crazy twist of history and logic.]