October 10, 2012

Oral arguments in Fisher: Justice Sotomayor takes this skinny white girl's complaint very personally

Here's the transcript of the oral arguments at the Supreme Court today in Abigail Fisher's lawsuit against the University of Texas's second system of racial preferences. 

Sonia Sotomayor's questioning of Fisher's attorney reminds me of Christopher Caldwell's classic line:
"One moves swiftly and imperceptibly from a world in which affirmative action can't be ended because its beneficiaries are too weak to a world in which it can't be ended because its beneficiaries are too strong." 

on

6 comments:

  1. saudi tugboats10/10/12, 5:10 PM

    At Berkeley a few years ago the black women students walked around campus wearing T-shirts that read, "Caution: educated person of color." Sotomayor's should read, "Caution: Satisfied Beneficiary of AA."

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  2. Anonymous10/10/12, 5:55 PM

    JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: So you don't want to overrule Grutter, you just want to gut it.
    MR. REIN: Excuse me?
    JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: You just want to gut it. You don't want to overrule it, but you just want to gut it.
    MR. REIN: Well -
    JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR: Now you want to tell universities that once you reach a certain number, then you can't use race anymore.
    MR. REIN: Justice Sotomayor, I don't want to gut it. And the only way one could reach that conclusion is to assume that Grutter is an unlimited mandate without end point to just use race to your own satisfaction and to be deferred to in your use of race. That is unacceptable. That is the invasion of Abigail Fisher's rights to equal protection under the law. Thank you.

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  3. DPG10/10/12, 6:01 PM

    I love how Sotomayor brought up the demographic breakdown of the state, and then later the lawyer for the respondents admitted that the demographic breakdown of the state is irrelevant to the "critical mass" standard.

    I do not envy any person who has to go up against Roberts, Scalia and Alito.

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  4. Jake10/10/12, 7:06 PM

    " "One moves swiftly and imperceptibly from a world in which affirmative action can't be ended because its beneficiaries are too weak to a world in which it can't be ended because its beneficiaries are too strong."

    This feels just like Animal Farm

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  5. Anonymous10/10/12, 8:08 PM

    I wish we had Scalias and Alitos that totalled 9 on that court.

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  6. Anonymous10/11/12, 1:36 PM

    When does a "critical mass" of NAMs become a "viral load"?

    ReplyDelete

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