On the Fisher Non-Decision

George Leef

In today's Pope Center piece, I take a look at the Supreme Court's decision to remand Fisher to the lower courts with orders to employ "strict scrutiny" of the issues.

It would have been far better if the Court had gone along with Justice Thomas, who would have overruled Grutter and held that, whether or not there are any "educational benefits" from using racial preferences, governmental institutions are not allowed under the Equal Protection Clause to categorize people according to their ancestry and treat some groups differently than others.

On remand, the lower courts will be snowed under with silly "research" purporting to prove that racial preferences have wondrous effects, just as the University of Michigan did. Maybe the judges will also pay some attention to the counter-arguments that preferences do considerable harm. In any event, the case is apt to wind up back in the Supreme Court in a few years. Diversity zealots no doubt hope that by then the Court will have a solid majority in favor of allowing colleges to continue this damaging and unconstitutional policy.

Image: Alliance for Justice

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