The decision of the Supreme Court to end the use of race in college admissions was not unexpected. Indeed, the rulings in cases involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina ended decades of muddled 5-4 decisions. Yet, President Joe Biden seemed to go into full attack mode and actually claimed that the Court gutted the constitutional guarantee that “all men and women are created equal.” In declaring that this Court was not “normal,” Biden further insisted that these admissions decisions and the Dobbs abortion decision reversed the gains that “we fought a war over in 1860” to secure.
In an interview on MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” President Biden accused the Court of ignoring what “the Constitution says: We hold these truths to be self-evident, all men and women are created equal, endowed by their creator.” That is actually a reference to the Declaration of Independence, but it was the substance of the point that was so baffling.
In barring the use of race in admissions, the Court believed that it was protecting that very guarantee. It erased what the Court viewed as a glaring anomaly in its cases in the treatment of racial discrimination in education as opposed to employment. It was the capstone opinion for Chief Justice John Roberts who in 2017 declared: “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” In 2006, Roberts added: “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”
The Court was enforcing what it saw as the “self-evident” guarantee referenced in the Declaration and later protected in the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court reaffirmed that all men and women are created equal and will be treated equally in both education and employment.
The President is not alone in such hyperbole. Figures like Whoopi Goldberg actually asked whether the decision means that we are “heading to no women in colleges soon? Who knows.”
We actually do know. An opinion rejecting the use of racial classification to determine who goes to college could not be read by anyone as endorsing the exclusion of other groups.
The truly baffling statement was Biden’s claims over the Civil War. By leaving questions like abortion to the states, Biden claims that the Court was reversing what was gained in that war. The criticism came in response to an opinion insisting that there is no place for racial discrimination in higher education. That would hardly seem an argument that would be embraced by the Confederacy.
President Biden has long taken liberties with our constitutional history. Many of us have repeatedly objected to claims that he has made in areas like the Second Amendment. One of his most repeated lines is that the Second Amendment was passed with the understanding that certain guns would be banned and adding “You couldn’t buy a cannon, when in fact the Second Amendment passed.”
That happens to be utterly false. Yet, even after the Washington Post declared Biden’s understanding of the Second Amendment to be false, he has continued to make the same false assertion over and over again.
Now Biden has moved on to the Civil War and his revisionism is about as subtle as Sherman’s scorched “March to the Sea.”
The Civil War did not end federalism or states rights. It denied the right of the states to secede and ultimately fulfilled the pledge to equality first made in the Declaration of Independence.
One can have good-faith disagreements on whether the use of racial criteria is constitutional affirmative action or unconstitutional racial discrimination. However, Biden is belittling our prior struggles for equality with these sweeping and erroneous claims.
In his interview, the President also insisted that one has to “look at how it’s ruled on a number of issues that are — have been precedent for 50, 60 years sometimes, and that’s what I meant by not normal.”
In reality, the Court’s decisions on affirmative action in education have been muddled and conflicted for decades. In 1977, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the Court barred affirmative action in higher education. However, it allowed some consideration of race as part of a holistic admissions process.
In the decades that followed, the Court remained sharply divided. By 2003, the Court was ready to issue the very decision that it issued this week. However, in Grutter v. Bollinger, then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor supplied the fifth vote to uphold the use of race by the University of Michigan. Yet, O’Connor wrote that the court “expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” That was roughly 20 years ago.
It is also ironic to hear the President bewailing the reversal of precedent since the greatest advance in racial equality was the reversal of Plessy v. Ferguson and the doctrine of “separate but equal.” That was the governing precedent from 1894 to 1954, but few denounced the Supreme Court for reversing the precedent in Brown v. Board of Education. It was a decision to eliminate different treatment on the basis for race.
This Court did indeed overturn long-standing cases but these have long been areas characterized by closely and fiercely divided 5-4 and plurality decisions.
The President also asserted that “the vast majority of the American people don’t agree with a lot of the decisions this court is making.” The majority clearly opposed the Dobbs ruling, but that is not the case on the affirmative action ruling. Polls have consistently shown (including this week) that the majority of the public does not support the use of race in college admissions. Indeed, even in the most liberal states like California, voters have repeatedly rejected affirmative action in admissions.
We should have a robust and passionate debate over these issues. Yet, a president should be seeking to facilitate that dialogue rather than distorting and weaponizing our shared history. It is a continuation of his prior declarations that members of Congress opposing his election reforms to block state laws are voting with “Jefferson Davis” and the Confederacy. Despite the laws in states like Georgia being upheld as constitutional, Biden declared them a return to the “Jim Crow” South based on distorted accounts of those laws. The claim was again historically and legally ridiculous even if one opposed these state laws.
We should not allow the President’s constitutional and historical distortions to become, to use his description of the Court, “normal.” We have fought hard to address the scourge of slavery and racism in our country. That struggle is continuing but we cannot address those problems in the future by distorting our past.
This is a corrected version. A short version appears on Fox.com.
Thank goodness that since he went on the Fox payroll and ignores the big political stories in favor of harping on Hunter Biden and trying to defend the most-disrespected SCOTUS in the history of polling of the SCOTUS, Turley has lost all credibility. Turley hasn’t commented on the fact that the split of the most-recent decisions was 6-3, along ideological lines, just as predicted–which is why most Americans view the Court as political. NO previous SCOTUS ever took away a right found to exist under the Bill of Rights, and affirmed over the course of five decades. And, the previous SCOTUS decisions involving use of race in college admissions were absolutely NOT “muddled” at all–they were consistent and upheld use of race as one factor. And, the reason we now have this turmoil is the massive ego of a sick narcissist who decided he needed the attention, praise and adulation of the US Presidency, aided and abetted by an ignoramus hypocrite Senator from Kentucky who helped shove three Federalist Society-vetted ultra conservatives onto the bench–people whose ultra right wing views conflict with the wishes and values of the majority of Americans. The sick narcissist had to cheat his way into office, of course, because the American people didn’t want him, so now, women no longer have a constitutionally-protected right to bodily autonomy, colleges and universities cannot set their own goals to achieve a diverse student population by considering race, and radical right-wing homophobic evangelical can make up a lie* about being asked to create a wedding website for a gay couple as conflicting with her “sincerely-held religious beliefs”–and, somehow, the SCOTUS throws away its previous standard of an “actual controversy” to uphold the claimed “right” of such a bigot to refuse services on “religious” grounds. So now, the standard is that someone on the grounds of a claimed “sincerely held religious belief” ** can discriminate as to whom they will serve as customers. Think about that: someone might say that their sincerely-held “religious belief” is that black people belong in Africa and/or that women belong in the kitchen, so they can be allowed to refuse services–could this include doctors, hospitals, lawyers? Who knows where the line can be drawn, since the floodgates have been opened. This is exactly the concern expressed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
But, since Turley is paid to attack Joe Biden and Democrats and to defend the SCOTUS, that’s how he spins the recent unprecedented actions by the SCOTUS. It’s pathetic, but in the end, it will backfire. Americans will turn out in record numbers in 2024 to make sure the narcissist is put in his place once again–relegated to the list of the worst people ever to occupy the White House. See, Turley, what you and your alt-right media employer don’t understand is that you can take all of the cheap pot shots at Joe Biden you want–you can claim, without any actual proof, that there’s a “Biden crime family”–whatever. That message resonates with the disciples because they ARE disciples and therefore, for them, no proof of facts is necessary or would even matter, but they are no more than 30% of the population. People can see that the economy is booming, gas prices are way lower than a year ago, COVID is under control, leisure travel has set a record, unemployment is at a 50-year low, kids are back in school, businesses are open, inflation is going down, and Biden has gotten passed several bills that benefit all of us, including the Infrastructure Bill, Inflation Reduction Act, Debt Ceiling Act, etc.. When it comes down to a choice, if the narcissist is the Republican nominee, Americans will vote for whomever is NOT named Trump. That’s what disciples don’t understand–Americans don’t want Trump. It’s not a matter of whether they love Joe Biden–we will do whatever it takes to keep Trump out of the White House. So, it doesn’t matter how many disciples show up at Trump rallies versus how many show up for Biden. We’ve seen what happens when power is given to Trump. The fallout will go on for decades, one of which is the fact that no prior SCOTUS rulings are safe any more, because we have ultra right-wing politicians on the SCOTUS.
*this person produced a communcation allegedly from a gay man allegedly asking her to set up a wedding website. The letter was a fake. The man, who is heterosexual, has gone public, and states that he has been married to a woman for years.
**the prior grounds for allowing homophobic refusal of services was “free speech”.
You’re a hot mess, cry harder snow flake
Good God!
Shut up!
No one’s listening.
You’re so filled with rage and hate that you’re screaming at yourself.
Get help!
Every word I wrote is back up by facts. But, you can’t handle facts, can you? So, you resort to name-calling and accusations of rage and hate.
NOTHING you wrote is backed up by the facts. Try harder…
Is calling someone a narcissist considered name calling in your world? How about bigot and homophobe?
Here’s a name that fits…self righteous hypocrite.
She gets paid by the word.
I am convinced that when a nation’s leaders go insane (and they do go crazy) their mental illness at the top spreads downward and infects the populace at large and becomes engrained in the popular culture, from which it is almost impossible to eradicate or even control. Germany in the 1930’s lost its mind at the top and soon the whole nation was deranged. China and Russia underwent nearly identical processes of top to bottom psychosis. USA’s leadership entered a madness pattern with Obama’s 1st election, and America is now a nation of DemocRat nuts, top to bottom. (Some of the DemocRat comments on Turley herein suggest sociopathy.) Therapy will not help. 150 million nut jobs can’t get relief on the couches of psychologists. (Indeed, the professions of psychology/psychiatry have led the way into madness.) Massive commitment to self-healing by the populace and to political cleansing at the top are the only ways out. But we mentally healthy people at the bottom must regain control or we are doomed to national insanity. That is why Trump is so vital to us and so threatening to the de Sades now in charge of what has become an asylum of leadership.
It is insane in America right now. And yes, it’s got to be Trump (not DeSantis) or the World Economic Forum, WHO, Gates, Great Reset globalization plan continues apace with ‘Kickback’ Biden as their rubber stamp who will give away America’s sovereignty to the cabal of psychopaths. But TDS is at boiling point such that the country will not surivive a Trump presidency. The same powers that be who rigged the last couple elections are already in motion to rig and steal the 24 election. They will never allow a Republican let alone Trump to ever “win” another election. It’s not looking good.
Paladin: I honestly don’t know how you can fall for the lies put out by alt-right media and ignore reality. How can any rational person say something so bizzare as: “Trump is to vital to us”. Who are the “us”?–certainly not the American people. We Americans barely survived Trump, who decimated our economy, our public health, our relations with EU and NATO allies and our confidence in science. He drove our national debt to a record level and because of his ego. When he couldn’t bully the Chinese, he started a trade war and imposed tariffs, the cost of which was passed on to American consumers, which has helped drive inflation and a shortage of computer chips. Trump has been nothing but a blowhard narcissist attention-seeking womanizer, racist, anti-Semite and liar who burnished a reputation as a boy-wonder self-made billionaire–all lies. He depended on his father to bail him out of one financial mess after another well into his forties, and when Daddy’s dementia resulted in a guardianship, the bankruptcies started–six of them. He’s had dozens of failed business ventures. His fake “presidency” was one of the worst in US history–he drove us from prosperity into the worst recession since the Great Depression, lied about COVID which caused unnecessarsy deaths and illnesses, some of which are long-term, lied to his fans about losing by making up false claims about a “rigged” election. When that didn’t work, he tried to start an insurrection, tried to bully and cheat his way back into power, and stole classified documents on his way out–to show off to people about what a big shot he thinks he is. It’s pathetic that anyone in this country could even think he has any business in a position of public trust and leadership.. You refer to yourself as “mentally healthy”–but your devotion to such a flawed failure of a person proves otherwise. You are delusional, my friend.
“Who are the “us”?–certainly not the American people.”
Is Gigi American? Anyone listening to her would think not. She lacks support for freedom of speech, private property, the rule of law, and many principles, which would make her sound like an “American” in its truest sense. She is an American citizen but not an American who firmly supports the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.
You close with two lies: “You are delusional, my friend.” I am neither.
You know that but lied anyway. So “Liar liar pants on fire.”
Your writing is yadayadayada insufferable. Who would read your stuff once and EVER read anything by you again?
Sooooo tiresome and repetive and pedestrian and barking at scarecrows and baying at the moon.
So like MSNBC. Do you work for MSNBC?
I don’t like Trump, nor am I (or the news outlets your refer to) alt-right. But you are a kool-aid sipping liberal who resides in a serious echo chamber. Literally EVERYTHING you spew is the party line. This deprives you of ALL credibility.
That and your “thats not true” response to anything counter to your view.
There is no “proof” about the Biden crime spree??? Are you f-ing kidding me? What is proof? Do you need a video of Biden being handed the money and stating what he will do for it? Suspicions are proven when a preponderance of the EVIDENCE leaves no reasonable doubt as to their voracity. There are emails, text messages, bank transfers, and EYE WITNESSES that are substantial EVIDENCE of crimes, and almost none of it has come about through investigations. This is just what we know on the surface. Imagine what lies beneath. Or don’t, and go back to sipping the kool aid. The democrat party could nominate Jimmy Hoffa and you would back him with fervor, because for libs, getting your way is all that matters. Trump has made a life of lying, stealing, cheating and bullying those who were dumb enough to go to bed with him. But Biden has done the same thing to the American public since he entered elected office. You think Trumps partial loss in the rape case in New York is great and wonderful? The day after the hair sniffing creep leaves office, the Tara Reade lawsuit will land in court and we will see then how you feel about he said/she said.
Ever wonder why not one single f-ing person has ever said they ever heard of someone named Corn Pop? The guy is a pathological liar. Graduation stats, HBC, arrested with Mandela, plagiarism, the list goes on and on. And now you think he is telling the truth about Hunter’s business deals???
I think you may be simply a provocateur, because no one can be truly as ignorant of the truth as you claim to be.
Gigi —
The baker serves any and all customers. The baker was asked to decorate a cake with a depiction of a large Satan-like figure licking a sex toy. And the baker refused on religious grounds. The Supreme Court agreed that the baker could not be forced by the state to do that.
That’s not true, according to Newsweek:
“The same day the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Denver-based baker Jack Phillips for dismissing a gay couple’s cake order based on religious grounds, a new customer reached out.
But this customer claimed to be a devil worshipper and wanted the devout Christian to create a cake to celebrate Satan’s birthday, according to court documents reviewed by Newsweek.” The cake you are referring to is NOT the one requested by the gay couple. So, the two incidents are not the same.
It doesn’t matter how many “show up for Biden” because NOBODY shows up for Biden — except to say F U Joe Biden!
Abridged version: “I am paid by Media Matters to attack Jonathan Turley.” Jonathan Turley had rock-solid credibility – Gigi does not…
Allen: Sorry, but I’ve never heard of “media matters”. Turley is roundly criticized by, among other legal forums, “Above the Law”, which is well-respected in the legal community.
Joe Patrice is a mudslinger and dishonest. Those looking for such odious opinions like Above the Law might like it but most probably recognize its bad qualities.
We now look for the LGBTQ+ activist community to harass and ask a Muslim bakery to decorate a cake with Satan licking a sex toy while two men fornicate. When will the left start attacking Muslim bakers’ religious freedoms forcing them into bankruptcy? Leave the Christians alone. Target the Muslims now. That day will never come, of course.
The Left is made up of cowards and crybullies. That’s why they go after Christians and not Muslims.
Unhinged.
The “Affirmative Action” legacy has been corrupt as hell from the start. The UC insisted hard number quotas were absolutely necessary, then took the “plus factor” loophole and blew it right up to quotas again. 20 years later another Bakke came along a white male with straight A s denied medical school admission. Prop 209 resulted.
There never was evidence of an actual discriminatory policy because the UC NEVER HAD ONE. Yes you read that right not only was there no such policy, all the evidence was to the contrary–UC had Asians of both domestic and foreign ancestry enrolled IN THE 1800s.
There remains an historical “black hole” regarding the UC and other universities outside of the southern states that practiced overt Jim Crow. despite the existence of an Ethnic Studies department since 1970, STILL no history of ethnic presence at the UC, Take your case there but it is unbelievably corrupt to howl about discrimination that wasn’t actually there. Web searches for the curious: Walter A. Gordon (Wikipedia has a page) Maggie Gee Luis Alvarez
The problem (the “root cause”!) is the catastrophic failure of K-12 schooling in the big cities since the 60s. And WHO has been in charge of THAT? Chicago with it’s APPOINTED school board is exemplary–look up the tale of Marva Collins there are plenty of Youtubes about her. Barack Obama got $700K to spend to “study” how to improve the schools in Chicago before he was a Senator. Look that one up. He sure didn’t talk to Marva.