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Mo News: Supreme Court To Ban Affirmative Action?
Mosheh Oinounou
October 31, 2022
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⚖️ FUTURE OF RACE-BASED COLLEGE ADMISSIONS
The future of affirmative action in higher education hangs in the balance in two big cases at the Supreme Court today. The justices will hear arguments over race-conscious admissions policies at two top universities.
Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC) will each be defending their use of race as part of their overall criteria to create diverse student bodies. ~ReutersThey are supported by several other schools, as well as business organizations, who argue that diversity is essential to the educational experience and that the only effective way to ensure diversity is to make it an explicit part of the admissions process.The conservative-backed challengers, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), argue instead that the schools’ approach violates constitutional protections and federal law. They want the court to prohibit admissions offices from considering an applicant’s race at all. The SFFA was created by Edward Blum, who is not a student, but has filed more than two dozen lawsuits against affirmative action practices and voting rights legislation.The lawsuits accuse UNC of discriminating against white and Asian American applicants while Harvard is accused of discriminating against Asian American applicants.Following the passage of the Civil Rights Bill, admissions departments at universities around the country began considering race as a factor when admitting new students starting in the late 1960s.According to Harvard, around 40% of U.S. colleges and universities still consider race in some fashion in admissions.
Affirmative Action Case History:
Both sides say the landmark 1954 decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which prohibited racial segregation in public schools, is on THEIR side. The challengers say the decision requires admissions policies to be colorblind. The universities respond that Brown meant to do away with a racial caste system that discriminated against Black students, and that the decision allows efforts to ensure diversity.
In a 1978 case called Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, the court ruled that race could be considered as one of several admissions factors including academic and extracurricular criteria, but barred racial quotas.
Later, in a 2003 case, Grutter v. Bollinger, the court ruled that colleges and universities could continue to consider race as a factor when deciding which students to admit for the sake of diversity. But in her opinion in that case, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor predicted that in 25 years "the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary." That would be 2028. It appears the court may agree with that prediction, five years early.The Supreme Court most recently upheld affirmative action one more time in a 2016 case. But, the court has shifted rightward since then. Its current 6-3 conservative majority includes three justices who dissented in that decision and three appointed by former President Trump. ~Reuters
Where The Public Stands: It depends on how you ask the question. ~538 Politics
The fact that the 6-3 conservative court already made some blockbuster decisions last term, including overturning the Roe v Wade precedent, means legal experts believe affirmative action is on the chopping block next.
Other reasons experts think the court is set to call affirmative action unconstitutional:Multiple lower courts in both the Harvard and UNC lawsuits all upheld the schools’ admissions policies, but the Supreme Court still agreed to take this on. They also took the UNC case before a federal appeals court had ruled. Taking a case faster than usual, with no disagreement among lower courts, is widely seen as a sign that the Supreme Court is ready to decide the case differently. ~AxiosAlso notable: Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court's newest member, has recused herself from the Harvard case but is set to participate in the UNC one. Jackson attended Harvard and previously served on its Board of Overseers.
🗞 THE SPEED READ
The devastating crowd surge in South Korea's capitol claimed the lives of more than 150 people. Authorities say that in addition to the dead there are more than 130 others injured, many of whom were young adults in Seoul's Itaewon neighborhood. The popular district was hosting Halloween celebrations that drew around 100,000 people when the crowd surge began. Many were attempting to gather in a narrow alley filled with bars and restaurants when chaos broke out and a stampede ensued.
The suspect in the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband Paul Pelosi had a list of people he wanted to target, law enforcement sources briefed on the investigation confirmed to CBS News. David DePape, the man accused of beating Paul Pelosi with a hammer inside his San Francisco home on Friday, may have been planning to attack more people.
Musk has set plans in motion for broad layoffs at Twitter as the billionaire entrepreneur began to shake up the social media company just days after closing the $44 billion buyout of the platform. Musk is now calling himself “Chief Twit." He was active on Twitter over the weekend, sharing a penis meme, mocking an automated Twitter message apparently sent to him but meant for new employees and tweeting and then deleting a link to a conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi.
With his own midterm ‘shellacking’ in mind, Obama returns to campaign trail to boost Democrats (CNN)
Former President Obama on Saturday sought to sway voters who are worried about inflation, warning in two key Midwestern states that Republicans seeking control of Congress have no plans to rein in prices and could target social safety net programs. Campaigning alongside Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in Detroit, and later Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and Democratic Senate nominee Mandela Barnes in Milwaukee, Obama acknowledged the economic realities Americans face. But he said handing power on Capitol Hill to the GOP would do little to solve those problems.
Brazil has taken a turn to the left as former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva beat far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in the presidential election. After a divisive campaign which saw two bitter rivals on opposite sides of the political spectrum go head to head, Lula won 50.9% of the votes. It is a stunning comeback for a politician who could not run in the last presidential election in 2018 because he was in jail and banned from standing for office.
A venomous 7-foot king cobra that escaped from its home in a Swedish zoo has returned back home by itself, bringing a happy ending to over a week-long disappearance saga. The deadly snake, whose official name is Sir Vass (Sir Hiss), escaped on Oct. 22 via a light fixture in the ceiling of its glass enclosure at the aquarium.
☀️ GOOD MOOD MONDAY
NASA has an explanation for why the sun is smiling in this picture.
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