The ACRU Blog

With the Democrats in the Senate stalling on the consideration and confirmation of 19 nominees to the district court level - thus creating a "judicial emergency - and esp. with the malicious attempts to derail the confirmation of Judge Leslie Southwick to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the American Civil Rights Union has sent a letter to each member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and other important Senate leaders. Here is that letter. (Document is in PDF format.)

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled on an affirmative action case involving a Seattle school district. The ACRU supports the challenge to the school district's race-based student assignment plan. In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, the school district argued its decision to use race is entitled to deference, a presumption of correctness before the law.

ACRU Senior Fellow and constitutional law expert Horace Cooper said that, "The Supreme Court today barred school assignment plans that take account of students' race. It is a shame that more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court, school districts are still struggling with whether or not to race or skin color should influence the decision of where children attend school. Today's ruling narrowly upheld the colorblind principle that all Americans regardless of race are equal under the law. But there's clearly more work to be done until at least 5 members of the Supreme Court acknowledge that just as our Constitution is colorblind, our public schools should be as well."

Horace Cooper is a writer, legal commentator and was a visiting assistant professor of law at George Mason University. He also has been Counsel to the Honorable Richard K. Armey, Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002. Horace Cooper is a Senior Fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research and the Centre for New Black Leadership. He has held senior appointed positions in the presidential administration of President George W. Bush.

The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is dedicated to protecting our fundamental rights and liberties across the board. The ACRU focuses, in particular, on those areas of our civil rights which are ignored, or even actively undermined, by other supposed civil liberties groups. These include property rights, freedom of religion, equality under the law, the right to keep and bear arms, individual liberty and federalism. The ACRU also supports freedom of speech and of the press, sound principles of criminal justice, and proper voting processes and procedures, among others.

American Civil Rights Union
CONTACT: Audrey Mullen for the American Civil Rights Union,
+1-703-548-1160

Executive Summary

The Seattle District case, decided 28 June by the Supreme Court, is unique in the way that the 5 Justice majority and the 4 Justice dissent attack each other for abusing the Court's prior cases, essentially of intellectual dishonesty. The majority holds that assigning children to a school solely on the basis of their race, offends the Constitution. The minority would hold that school administrations have the right to do that, in the interests of "diversity."

Both sides claim to be in the tradition of the classic decision, Brown v. Board of Education, and accuses the other side of betraying that decision.

In my judgment as a 33-year practitioner in the US Supreme Court, the majority is being faithful to Brown, and the dissent is not. Lawyers can go through the cases cited by each side to determine one by one which side is honest, and which is not.

From AP/MSNBC:

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected school diversity plans that take account of students' race in two major public school districts.

The decision in cases affecting schools in Louisville, Ky., and Seattle could imperil similar plans in hundreds of districts nationwide, and it leaves public school systems with a limited arsenal to maintain racial diversity.

The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court's judgment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote a dissent that was joined by the court's other three liberals.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote a concurring opinion in which he said race may be a component of school district plans designed to achieve diversity.

But he agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle went too far.

More than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court, school districts are still struggling with whether or not race or skin color should influence the decision of where children attend school. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule this week on an affirmative action case involving a Seattle school district (Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1). Once and for all the Court should come down squarely in the camp that believes that there is no legal basis for using race to determine whether a child can or cannot attend a given school. Just as the U.S. Constitution is colorblind, our school districts should be also.