The paper based on the interview and other parts of the assignment should be 3-5 pages, double spaced with 12 font and have about 300 words per page. It should be prepared in Word. The paper should provide a detailed summary of the interview and discuss what you have learned about affirmative action policies as it relates to the process of nominating and confirming Supreme Court justices. Use details from the interview in your paper. What is the “elephant in the room”, as Thomas describes it to Steve Kroft? What do you make of the episode involving Anita Hill and Thomas’ comment to the Senate Judiciary Committee that the proceedings were a “high tech lynching of an uppity black who deigns to think for himself”? Why do you think he said that?
Your paper should also discuss Grutter v. Bollinger and especially what Thomas wrote in his dissent about affirmative action. Grutter v. Bollinger examined the constitutionality of the affirmative action admissions policy used by the University of Michigan Law School. The case raised the question of whether it was permissible for the law school to use race as a factor in its selection process. Those opposed to such affirmative action policies argued that, as Justice Harlan wrote in dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson (the 1896 case we examined earlier in the course where the Court created the “separate but equal” doctrine), the Constitution should be “color blind”. In other words, opponents argue that to give preference to African American students (or women in the Grutter case) is no more constitutional than were the policies using race in the past to segregate minorities in schools, hotels, restaurants etc. Thomas draws on a variety of materials in his dissent, including the ideas of Frederick Douglass. How might Thomas’ life experiences have affected his view of affirmative action?
You should also note that the Grutter case was effectively overruled by two cases, Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard/University of North Carolina (2023) https://www.scotusblog.com/2023/06/supreme-court-strikes-down-affirmative-action-programs-in-college-admissions/.
This article from the New Yorker magazine (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/essay/clarence-thomass-radical-vision-of-race). provides much background information about Justice Thomas and his views on affirmative action relating to this week’s assignment.
Your paper should be written in your own words, keeping quoted material to a minimum.
60 Minutes Justice Thomas VideoLinks to an external site.
https://youtu.be/2__j_E8Sigo
