It's the time of year when decisions ripen and fall from the nine main branches of the tree of justice. How's that for a metaphor! Most of the fruit seems to be falling on the right.
In Parents Involved in Community Schools Inc. v. Seattle School District and Meredith v. Jefferson County (Ky.) Board of Education, the Court ruled (5-4) that school districts could not use race as the sole or main factor in assigning students to schools. Anthony Kennedy in his concurrence argued that school boards could use race as one of a number of criteria for student assignment.
That represents progress, but not a lot of it. I think it obviously wrong to bar any student from attending a chosen school because he or she is the wrong color. I do not think it matters how heavily the student's race or ethnic classification is weighed. Moreover, the racial assignment regimes in these school systems are demonstrably incoherent. The supposed compelling government interest is diversity. Now imagine two schools: one is half White, and half Asian; the other is one quarter each White, Asian, Hispanic, and African American. Under the Seattle system, the former would be okay, but the latter would have to be broken up. Why? Because the operating racial principle seems to be mixing Whites and "minorities" in equal proportions. But anyone can see that the second school is more diverse than the former. This is nuts.
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