Two Justices Debate The Doctrine Of Colorblindness

*This is like listening to a boxing match, blow-by-blow, commentary. The article does a wonderful job of isolating the differing points of view, and positioning them side by side. VL

By Gene Demby, NPR Code Switch

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that Michigan voters’ 2006 decision to ban affirmative actionin the state’s higher education system passed constitutional muster.

But much of the attention on the decision has zeroed in on a specific exchange between Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Chief Justice John Roberts on the idea of “colorblindness” — the notion that the consideration and discussion of race perpetuate racial division.

Roberts is, of course, skeptical of racial preferences in education; he famously wrote in a school busing case that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” (In this case, the plurality that Roberts joined said it wasn’t ruling on the question of affirmative action but whether the state’s voters could decide on affirmative action via the ballot.)

But Sotomayor pushed back, and she remixed Roberts’ much-quoted line in doing so. “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination,” she wrote.

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[Photo courtesy of US Government Works]