After the Supreme Court upheld the state of Michigan’s ban on using race as a factor in college admissions, Justice Sonia Sotomayor recited her disagreement about the ruling loud and clear.
“Without checks, democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups,” said Justice Sotomayor. “We ought not sit back and wish away, rather than confront, the racial inequality that exists in our society,” she added.
The official 6-2 ruling upheld a voter-approved change to the Michigan Constitution that forbids the state’s public colleges to take race into account. Many affirmative action advocates emphasized that this ruling takes away rights and privileges from minorities and practically erases the fight for equality in education.
“To take away the rights of minorities is a shocking decision,” said George Washington, a Detroit lawyer who challenged the law. “With this, and the voting rights decision last year, it’s clear the Supreme Court is undoing the rights gained by blacks and Latino people in the 1960s and 1970s.”
The ultimate takeaway and main message from Justice Sotomayor’s dissent was that even though a crucial “part of democracy is majority rule, the majority sometimes may rule in a way that hurts a minority, and that the minority must sometimes be protected by its government.”
Recent Comments