The Assault on Affirmative Action in Education
Among the polarizing initiatives of the Trump administration are its policies on education. Whether addressing sexual assault on campuses, funding for the Special Olympics, or the prospect of training teachers in the use of deadly weapons, the Department of Education (DEd) has stunned policy-watchers in its willingness to promote or support regressive changes to the school environment that some interest groups find insensitive if not dangerous. Lately, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has added its support to a court challenge against affirmative action in school admissions programs. This move follows a series of joint DEd-DOJ actions to obliterate Obama-era policies supportive of affirmative action efforts in school admissions. In sum, the administration is working on various fronts to derail race-sensitive affirmative action efforts. What follows is a contextual summary of these efforts along with (I hope) some reasonably even-handed commentary.
Analyzing Race-Based Classifications After Fisher
In his dissenting opinion in Fisher v. University of Texas, Justice Alito argues that the Court indulged the university’s “plea for deference” in the application of strict scrutiny to its race-based affirmative action program. And he’s probably right, too: the scrutiny the majority applied in Fisher seems less strict than the scrutiny the Court historically has given race-based classifications.
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