When it comes to today’s 7-1 decision, Fischer v. University of Texas, while it was always a federal case, it was remanded down not to the state level* but to the lower level. While it is being sent down (and I earlier reported to the states, no one should think about down as in punting — either kicking footballs or using poles to guide yourself down any tame and civilized rivers — think pole vaulting. The Supreme Court invites all lower courts to toss out affirmative action plans premised on diversity,which is after all a positive rather than a negative way of viewing race.
I will speculate as to the possible consequences of this decision soon, but the one thing any thinking person can conclude is they will be undoubtedly significant. Meanwhile read the decision yourself before coming up with your own conclusion or opinion that there is little gentle about this 7-1 decision despite the strong majority Chief Justice Roberts’ rallied.
*correction (thanks)
Professor Ruth O’Brien, who earned her Ph.D. in political science at UCLA, joined the Graduate Center’s doctoral faculty in 1997 and, in 2004, founded the “Writing Politics” specialization in political science. She also serves as an adjunct affiliated scholar with the Center for American Progress. In her research and books, she focuses on American politics, law, political theory without national borders, globalism, and American/global dichotomy. She edits the award-winning “Public Square” series for Princeton University Press, showcasing public intellectuals such as Jill Lepore, Jeff Madrick, Anne Norton, Martha Nussbaum, and Joan Scott. O’Brien is also launching “Heretical Thought,” an Oxford University Press political-theory series that is global in outlook. Her latest book, Out of Many One: Obama and the Third American Political Tradition (2013), with a foreword by journalist Thomas Byrnes Edsall, distinguished professor at Columbia’s School of Journalism, was honored with a 2013 “Author Meets Critic” American Political Science Association convention session. She also wrote Bodies in Revolt: Gender, Disability, and a Workplace Ethic of Care (2005), Crippled Justice: The History of Modern Disability Policy in the Workplace (2001), which received an honorable mention from Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Human Rights and Bigotry (“Meyers Center”), and Workers’ Paradox: The Republican Origins of the New Deal Labor Policy, 1886–1935 (1998). “Writing Politics” emanated from two books she contributed to and edited: Telling Stories out of Court: Narratives about Women and Workplace Discrimination (2008) and Voices from the Edge: Narratives about the Americans with Disabilities Act (2004), which earned another honorable mention from the Meyers Center. O’Brien’s controversial blog led Rush Limbaugh to dub her a “professorette.”
When it comes to today’s 7-1 decision, Fischer v. University of Texas, while it was always a federal case, it was remanded down not to the state level* but to the lower level. While it is being sent down (and I earlier reported to the states, no one should think about down as in punting — either kicking footballs or using poles to guide yourself down any tame and civilized rivers — think pole vaulting. The Supreme Court invites all lower courts to toss out affirmative action plans premised on diversity,which is after all a positive rather than a negative way of viewing race.
