Sandra Day O'Connor Says Affirmative Action Faces Uncertain Future

[pigpickle]

Sandra Day O’Connor, the retired associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court and author of the majority opinion in a landmark 2003 decision upholding the legality of race-conscious college admissions, acknowledged in a speech today that she is not confident the court had preserved affirmative action in higher education for much longer.

Speaking at Washington’s National Press Club at a symposium on diversity at colleges, Justice O’Connor said, “The future of affirmative action in higher education today is certainly muddy.” As the basis for her observation, she cited Michigan voters’ adoption last fall of an amendment to that state’s Constitution banning affirmative-action preferences, as well as the passage of similar measures in California in 1996 and Washington State in 1998, and current efforts to place preference bans on several states’ ballots in 2008.

Justice O’Connor, who retired last year, said the court’s majority “had tried to be careful in stressing that affirmative action should be a temporary Band-Aid rather than a permanent cure” in the 2003 opinion she wrote in Grutter v. Bollinger, involving the law school at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. In the long term, she said, “It probably would be better if we could remedy the racial gap in academic achievement long before application for college admission,” by finding ways to improve elementary and secondary schools enough that race-conscious admissions policies will no longer be necessary. “I think we are falling down in that area,” she said.

The retired justice observed that public colleges in Michigan are trying to find other ways to maintain racial and ethnic diversity in the absence of preferences — by, for example, considering whether applicants are socioeconomically disadvantaged. But, she said, “we don’t know whether programs like that are going to have an effect or not,” and it could well be that the efforts will also end up being challenged as discriminatory in the courts.



http://chronicle.com/news/article/1953/sandra-day-oconnor-suggests-that-affirmative-actions-demise-draws-near

[Name removed]

1. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jody]

2. "remedy the racial gap in academic achievement long before application for college admission"?

What current programs are failing and why?

What current programs are succeeding and why?

What new programs should be implemented with assurances they will be effective?

Bottom line is we have limited funds for education, health, defense, and other critical programs so we need to spend our funds in the most effective, efficient way to "remedy the racial gap in academic achievement long before application for college admission".

[spooky3]

4. I think what she is referring to is a research report (book)? that

was in the press a year or two ago (I can't remember the authors' names). The researchers found that achievement measures, including high school graduation rates, IIRC, were really different for whites vs. other groups. In other words, the data showed that the outcomes of pre-college education showed a huge gap because of many factors--economic disadvantages, inadequate schools, etc., not just because of a particular program failure--so that if colleges and universities could not use affirmative action, the underrepresentation of people of color would be much more severe at the college level than it is today.

[jody]

6. OK, but my questions still seem valid. I've listened too many speeches touting the success of this

or that program but apparently in the aggregate we have not made much progress to "remedy the racial gap in academic achievement long before application for college admission".

[spooky3]

7. yes, I am not saying your questions aren't valid, but rather that

she was probably not reacting to any one given program, and she was talking about why some version of affirmative action at universities will continue to be necessary as a temporary solution, rather than focusing primarily on pre-college interventions.

Here's one article that may interest you. It deals with aptitude tests rather than grades or other things that might be more amenable to program intervention alone, especially if programs aren't introduced early, though.

http://www.jbhe.com/features/49_college_admissions-test.html

It is a very complex problem, obviously.

There is probably a whole body of research on program effectiveness and evaluation; sorry, I am not in that field so I don't know where to look.

[jody]

17. I'm not in that field either but as a voter/taxpayer I'm concerned about the lack of progress. n/t

[tnlefty]

3. Well, what she did expect when she helped to annoint the Worst

President Ever? Was she not listening to what was coming out of Dimson's** mouth while he was campaigning? Just :puke: :puke: and :puke: some more!

[proud patriot]

5. That woman betrayed the Constitution and The People

her words fall on deaf ears ...

[BayCityProgressive]

8. Affirmative Action was repealed in Michigan

it is now unconstitutional :(

[IChing]

9. Why can't they see?

what the Declaration of Independence
and the Constitution means to me?

Never-mind

Rights will always be questioned.
but time is running out in this democracy.

[Unvanguard]

10. Unfortunately, she is probably right. n/t

[XOKCowboy]

13. I agree but for her to take time from her golfing...

to criticize the same Supreme Court she abandoned so Bush could appoint a toadie is a little annoying. Go work on your back swing Sandra. You had your chance at history.

[Unvanguard]

15. And her opinion in Grutter v. Bolinger is one primary reason

that affirmative action's future is questionable.

Trust me, I'm no fan.

[Selatius]

11. I wish to see affirmative action expanded tremendously.

I want to see Affirmative Action aimed at the entire bottom 33% of America in terms of combating poverty as well as combating racial inequities. We should provide help to all those who are poor regardless of skin color. Given that most minorities in America are already economically disadvantaged citing the history of America, it, in my view, would not alter Affirmative Action a great extent if it were expanded to include all the poor and disadvantaged. If anything, it should have an even bigger impact on closing the gap between the wealthy and the poor.

[Unvanguard]

14. The problem is that affirmative action that is solely class-based

ignores the fact that racism ALSO severely impedes equality of opportunity.

A poor white child has to deal with the inequality of opportunity resulting from class inequality. A poor black child has to deal with that, and also with the inequality of opportunity resulting from racism.

[Nutmegger]

12. She's nothing but a disgrace now and history will judge her harshly for what she has done.

I use to respect her. Now I don't.

She can talk until she's blue, I'll always remember where I was when the dictator was appointed.

[Swamp Rat]

16. What about the 'Affirmative Action' Halliburton and other corporations receive?

She should believe in herself and have confidence in her decisions, like the one she made when she gave the GOP preferential treatment in 2000, handing the presidency to a lesser man.

[Orsino]

18. Hope she likes being one of the last female Justices, then.

I'm sure she'll still be allowed to bake cookies, though.

[philosophie_en_rose]

19. Oh please. If employers weren't racist, affirmative action wouldn't be necessary.

It's really interesting to me that some people are absolutely fine with employers perpetuating racist hiring practices, but have a huge problem with employers taking a look at their workforce and deciding to create a diverse workforce.