The U.S. Supreme Court may be taking up a case that will have huge implications for affirmative action in educational systems, and the left is already beginning to panic, NPR reports.
Chief Justice John Roberts has signaled that the Supreme Court could be reviewing a 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax, Virginia, to continue admitting large numbers of Black and Hispanic students at the expense of Asian American students.
The school replaced its merit-based admissions with a lottery-based system which sparked outrage among parents. This is an emergency for leftists who do not want affirmative action policies to be considered on the conservative majority Supreme Court.
Affirmative action in danger
A district judge already ruled that the school’s affirmative action-oriented policy was discriminatory against Asian American students.
The Supreme Court would likely employ that same legal thinking should the case be presented. A full review of the case is highly likely as the school has until Wednesday to respond to Chief Justice Roberts.
After that response, a decision will be made, and the most likely option will be a full review with the Supreme Court.
As it stands, the Supreme Court has a 6–3 conservative majority. New Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson will replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and as a result, the Supreme Court’s political balance remains static.
Glenn E. Roper, an attorney representing the group of parents who initially sued over the discriminatory policy, said, “We hope the court will take our application seriously and hopefully grant it so that the discriminatory policy won’t be enforced for this application season.”
The Supreme Court has a fantastic opportunity to strike down one of the more insidious ideas pushed by the left in the form of affirmative action. Affirmative action is both discriminatory and undermines the very notion of meritocracy.
Winning the culture war
Conservatives who want to push back against the left in winning the culture war need to recognize that the battle begins in the education system.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) certainly has recognized this, and as a result, Florida is leading the charge in pushing back against leftist ideas in public education. Knocking down affirmative action is one of many crucial steps conservatives need to take.
If the Supreme Court strikes down Thomas Jefferson High School’s discriminatory policy, that will lay the legal framework to strike down affirmative action nationwide. The left is already losing ground in American schools and losing affirmative action would be a devastating defeat.
