Earlier this week I wrote about Nikita Rau who was denied entry into a school for gifted students because she is a minority. The reason the school rejected her application although she had scored higher on the entrance exam than white students who were accepted was because of an antiquated ruling from 1974 by a federal judge who set racial quotas in an attempt to desegregate public schools.

Today in a similar case, the Supreme Court rejected integration plans in two school districts which were also instituted in the name of racial diversity. Chief Justice John Roberts hit the nail on the head with this verdict when he stated “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race”.

Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent joined by the other liberals on the court, said Roberts’ opinion undermined the promise of integrated schools that the court laid out 53 years ago in its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.

“To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown,” Breyer said

This is a very narrow minded, almost ignorant view of the case before the court. The parent who brought the lawsuit did so because her daughter (who was white) was rejected from her 3 top choices for High Schools on the basis of her skin color. The girl then had to travel across town in order to attend High School, all in the name of diversity. This has nothing at all to do with separate but equal.

Today’s decision is another in a long string of Supreme Court rulings which overturned the atrocious 9th Circuit Court of Appeals who earlier ruled the district “has a compelling interest in securing the educational and social benefits of racial (and ethnic) diversity.”

What is the educational benefit of telling a teenage girl she cannot go to the school of her choice because of her skin color? Racial diversity is all well and good, it should not however be the deciding factor in education, specifically with regards to schools for the gifted.

Update:
Harry Reid has chosen to put his two cents in regarding todays decision (no word yet how he would like his change).
“The Supreme Court decision in the school desegregation cases is appalling. Ever since Brown v. Board of Education, it has been settled law that the Constitution requires racially mixed schools. Today’s decision turns Brown upside down and ignores decades of constitutional history. If this isn’t judicial activism, I don’t know what is.”

To Harry Reid and all like minded individuals, Brown v. Board did not require racially mixed schools. It simply stated there could be no segregation. As long as a school district is not disallowing certain races from attending they are in no way violating Brown. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote for the unanimous court in Brown:
” In these days, it is doubtful that any child may reasonably be expected to succeed in life if he is denied the opportunity of an education. Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms.” (emphasis mine)

More recently, in 1995 Clarence Thomas wrote in Missouri v. Jenkins:
“Brown I did not say that “racially isolated” schools were inherently inferior; the harm that it identified was tied purely to de jure segregation, not de facto segregation. Indeed, Brown I itself did not need to rely upon any psychological or social-science research in order to announce the simple, yet fundamental truth that the Government cannot discriminate among its citizens on the basis of race…. ”

Based on the decision of Brown, it would appear to most rational individuals that by denying a student admission to a school based on their race, the school district has violated that persons Constitutional rights.

Then again, I doubt anyone has ever accused Harry Reid of being rational.

Sphere: Related Content

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Appellate Court, Education, Supreme Court