RIGHT-WING COURT SOUNDS DEATH KNELL FOR FAIR, ACCESSIBLE EDUCATION

SAN FRANCISCO, CA (June 29, 2023) — Today, the Supreme Court’s right-wing supermajority sounded the death knell for fair and equitable education, barring public and private universities from using affirmative action policies to help combat racial discrimination in admissions processes. Take Back the Court released the following statement on behalf of its president, Sarah Lipton-Lubet, in response to the news:

“Only these right-wing justices could look at America’s glacial progress toward educational equity and decide it was moving too fast. Affirmative action policies have been fundamental in supporting students of color and helping build diverse, successful learning environments that benefit all students. But rather than advancing equity, this rogue Court decided to further entrench a system that overwhelmingly privileges white and wealthy students over all others. This is just one more way of imposing its extreme, discriminatory agenda.

“No progress toward building a more equal future is safe under this right-wing Court’s rule. Our rights and our democracy will only be protected once we expand the Court.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recused herself from the Harvard case to avoid even the appearance of conflict, having sat on the university’s board of overseers until last spring. Unsurprisingly, Justice Clarence Thomas failed to recuse — despite his wife Ginni Thomas’ role on the advisory board of the National Association of Scholars: an organization that filed amicus briefs before the Court supporting Students for Fair Admissions’ challenges.

The ruling comes as little surprise, given the right-wing justices’ long-held regressive positions on race and opposition to affirmative action policies. Read more about what they’ve said in Equal Justice Society and Take Back the Court’s joint report.

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