Quote from rlb21079:
picknclick, thankyou for the links. I have not finished reading yet, but have read a fact I had forgotten. This case was concerning a public school and so the standards are different. Under the principle that public institutions should serve the public good, whether or not a diverse student body serves the public for good becomes paramount. AAA, here is where you would make your case. I can see this is a rather emotionally charged issue for you, but if you can calm down I'll certainly give your arguments thorough consideration. ... .
rlb,
My earlier post to you was written in haste and I am afraid came out a little more confrontational than I intended. I do get a bit heated about this subject, but not because of the racial angle. What steams me is the spectacle of the Supreme Court acting as some annointed council of elders, purporting to wisely decide any and all troublesome issues for a grateful populace.
In reality our Constitution gives them a much more limited role, one that was well understood until FDR decided enacting the New Deal was more important than following the Constitution. It's been downhill ever since.
So now we find ourselves in a situation where Supreme Court Justices, assisted by the brightest law clerks in the land, think it is perfectly appropriate to say that something may be constitutional now but perhaps not after 25 years. How can that make any sense? Is there a clause in the 14 th Amendment that says "states may discriminate if they mean well, but only for 25 years"? The Constitution I read entitles us all to "equal protection" and "due process", and there are no exceptions for helping white students develop more PC attitudes.
Finally, I am afraid you have misunderstood the significance of state action. The University of Michigan, as a state school, is actually more constrained by the constitution than a purely private institution. Teh Consitution acts a s a restraint on governmenta ction, not private.
The test is not whether they are advancing liberal social policy, but whether or not they are engaging in racial discrimination. They try to dodge this by saying, well it may look like race conscious discrimination but actually we are only ensuring diversity. I wonder what your reaction would be if some southern state university said, we have had a lot of racial tension, so we are only going to admit blacks that we are sure will fit in. It may look like discrimination, but we are actually advancing the neutral policy of maintaining an orderly campus, which benefits all students.