Tipsheet

Racist Admissions Policies Have Been Struck Down by SCOTUS, and Biden's Not Happy About It

Spencer Brown
Spencer Brown  |  June 29, 2023 2:30 PM

President Joe Biden addressed the American people on Thursday afternoon following the Supreme Court's ruling that struck down the institutional racism of affirmative action policies in college admissions — and he wasn't happy that the Court barred schools from discriminating against students based on their race. 

"I strongly, strongly disagree with the Court's decision," Biden declared from the White House while accusing the Supreme Court's majority of walking away "from decades of precedent" in a decision he slammed as one that "rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress."

Biden argued that affirmative action in college admissions does not mean that "unqualified students" were "admitted ahead of qualified students," but said that the race-based part of the process only occurred after a pool of students who met a school's requirements had been selected. 

But Biden didn't seem to understand the problem at issue was that using a student's race to make admissions decisions — at any point in the process — was determined by SCOTUS to be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

Invoking what he called the "promise of America," Biden sought to portray the end of race-based admissions as one that somehow abandons the values of the country's founding as laid out in the Declaration of Independence. Yet, as Justice Clarence Thomas explained in his concurring opinion on the affirmative action case, the "solution to our Nation’s racial problems...cannot come from policies grounded in affirmative action or some other conception of equity." In what should be a no-brainer, Thomas said "[r]acialism simply cannot be undone by different or more racialism." 

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Instead, Thomas noted that the "solution announced in the second founding is incorporated in our Constitution: that we are all equal, and should be treated equally before the law without regard to our race," he added. "Only that promise can allow us to look past our differing skin colors."

That is, by stating his opposition to — and "severe disappointment" with — Thursday's Supreme Court ruling, Joe Biden is telling the American people he would prefer them to judge each other by the color of their skin. That backwards and racist view of other individuals, Biden insisted "protects diversity and expands opportunity."

Despite the Supreme Court barring race as a factor in admissions, Biden instructed American colleges and universities to continue considering "racial discrimination that individuals have faced," an idea which — unless a student volunteers such information — would rely on stereotyped racial assumptions.

After concluding his remarks, Biden did not offer to take questions. He did however, while sauntering toward the exit, respond to one shouted question from a reporter who asked whether SCOTUS was "a rogue court." After thinking, Biden answered that it's "not a normal court."