Reference no: EM133700216

Assignment:

In a 2007 affirmative action case (Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1), current U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts argued that affirmative action is a form of unwarranted discrimination and, regardless of the purpose, the government should not discriminate on the basis of race. He wrote that "the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." On the other hand, former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun wrote in a dissent to a decision in a 1978 affirmative action case (Regents of the University of California v. Bakke) that "in order to get beyond racism, we must first take account of race. There is no other way. And in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently." Articulating a similar idea in a 1965 address at Howard University, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson said "you do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, 'you are free to compete with all the others,' and still justly believe that you have been completely fair."

Prompt: When thinking about affirmative action, do you agree more with Chief Justice Roberts or with Justice Blackmun and President Johnson? Should we do away with affirmative action or are there some situations when race should be taken into account? Please explain your reasoning.