Justice Sotomayor Dissents
SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES
No. 12–682
BILL SCHUETTE, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MICHI- GAN, PETITIONER v. COALITION TO DEFEND AF- FIRMATIVE ACTION, INTEGRATION AND IMMI- GRANT RIGHTS AND FIGHT FOR EQUALITY BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY (BAMN), ET AL.
ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT
[April 22, 2014]
JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR, with whom JUSTICE GINSBURG joins, dissenting.
"My colleagues are of the view that we should leave race out of the picture entirely and let the voters sort it out. We have seen this reason- ing before. (“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”). It is a sentiment out of touch with reality, one not required by our Constitution, and one that has properly been rejected as “not sufficient” to resolve cases of this nature. While “[t]he enduring hope is that race should not matter[,] the reality is that too often it does.” “[R]acial discrimination . . . [is] not ancient history.”
Race matters. Race matters in part because of the long history of racial minorities’ being denied access to the political process. (describing racial discrimination in voting as “an insidious and perva- sive evil which had been perpetuated in certain parts of our country through unremitting and ingenious defiance of the Constitution”). And although we have made great strides, “voting discrimination still exists; no one doubts that.”
Race also matters because of persistent racial inequality in society—inequality that cannot be ignored and that has produced stark socioeconomic disparities. (cataloging the many ways in which “the effects of centuries of law- sanctioned inequality remain painfully evident in our communities and schools,” in areas like employment, poverty, access to health care, housing, consumer transac- tions, and education); recognizing that the “lingering effects” of discrimination, “reflective of a system of racial caste only recently ended, are evident in our workplaces, markets, and neighborhoods”.
And race matters for reasons that really are only skin deep, that cannot be discussed any other way, and that cannot be wished away. Race matters to a young man’s view of society when he spends his teenage years watching
others tense up as he passes, no matter the neighborhood where he grew up. Race matters to a young woman’s sense of self when she states her hometown, and then is pressed, “No, where are you really from?”, regardless of how many generations her family has been in the country. Race matters to a young person addressed by a stranger in a foreign language, which he does not understand because only English was spoken at home. Race matters because of the slights, the snickers, the silent judgments that reinforce that most crippling of thoughts: “I do not belong here.”
In my colleagues’ view, examining the racial impact of legislation only perpetuates racial discrimination. This refusal to accept the stark reality that race matters is regrettable. The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfor- tunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination. As members of the judiciary tasked with intervening to carry out the guarantee of equal protection, we ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society. It is this view that works harm, by perpetuating the facile notion that what makes race matter is acknowledging the simple truth that race does matter."
This is the conclusion of her dissent. For the full text of the decision and of Judge Sotomayer's important dissent go here:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-682_j4ek.pdf
This is the conclusion of her dissent. For the full text of the decision and of Judge Sotomayer's important dissent go here:
http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/12-682_j4ek.pdf
"The Constitution does not protect racial minorities from political defeat. But neither does it give the majority free rein to erect selective barriers against racial minorities. The political-process doctrine polices the channels of change to ensure that the majority, when it wins, does so without rigging the rules of the game to ensure its success. Today, the Court discards that doctrine without good reason.
In doing so, it permits the decision of a majority of the voters in Michigan to strip Michigan’s elected university boards of their authority to make decisions with respect to constitutionally permissible race-sensitive admissions policies, while preserving the boards’ plenary authority to make all other educational decisions. “In a most direct sense, this implicates the judiciary’s special role in safe- guarding the interests of those groups that are relegated to such a position of political powerlessness as to com- mand extraordinary protection from the majoritarian political process.” The Court abdicates that role, permitting the majority to use its numerical advantage to change the rules mid-contest and forever stack the deck against racial minorities in Michigan.
The result is that Michigan’s public colleges and universities are less equipped to do their part in ensuring that students of all races are “better prepare[d] . . . for an increasingly diverse workforce and society . . .”
Today’s decision eviscerates an important strand of our equal protection jurisprudence. For members of historically marginalized groups, which rely on the federal courts to protect their constitutional rights, the decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government.
I respectfully dissent."
Note to my reader(s?):
Go and read the Court's inane decision and pay careful attention to "Chief" Roberts response to Judge Sotomayor's eloquent dissent. He has - in his own pathetic way- proven everything she has written.
Note to my reader(s?):
Go and read the Court's inane decision and pay careful attention to "Chief" Roberts response to Judge Sotomayor's eloquent dissent. He has - in his own pathetic way- proven everything she has written.
