President Joe Biden criticized the Supreme Courtâs decision to strike down two universitiesâ affirmative action programs, saying that it has âdone more to unravel basic rightsâ of citizens.
In an interview on MSNBCâs âDeadline: White Houseâ with host Nicolle Wallace, Biden expressed his opinion on the decision from the Supreme Court. The Supreme Courtvoted 6-3 in the UNC case, and 6-2 in the Harvard case.
Wallace asked Biden to expand upon a statement he had made in response to a reporter asking him whether the Supreme Court was a ârogue court.â Biden answered the reporter by saying that it was ânot a normal court.â
âWhat I meant with that is itâs done more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history,â said Biden, adding that he feels the Supreme Court has âgone out of its wayâ to unravel basic human rights.
Biden cited the Supreme Courtâs decision to overturn the landmark Roe V. Wade decision in June 2022.
âTake a look at how itâs ruled on a number of issues that have been precedent for 50, 60 years sometimes,â Biden said, clarifying that was what he had âmeant by not normal.â
Justice Ketanji Jackson criticized the Supreme Courtâs majority decision, arguing the Supreme Court majority was opting to be colorblind in terms of race.
âJustice Sotomayor has persuasively established that nothing in the Constitution or Title VI prohibits institutions from taking race into account to ensure the racial diversity of admits in higher education,â wrote Jackson in her dissent.
Jackson argued that just because the Supreme Court ruled race âirrelevant in law does not make it so in life.â
âAnd having so detached itself from this countryâs actual past and present experiences, the Court has now been lured into interfering with the crucial work that UNC and other institutions of higher learning are doing to solve Americaâs real-world problems,â wrote Jackson.
Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that both admission programs from UNC and Harvard âlack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of raceâ and as a result, both âunavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points.â
âWe have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today,â Roberts wrote.
