LARRY KUDLOW: I just yearn for a merit-based, colorblind society

Like most conservatives, I am cheering the Supreme Court decision that ruled that Harvard and the University of North Carolina both violated the 14th Amendment by considering applicants’ race during the admissions process.   

As Chief Justice John Roberts put it, “Those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” but I wish to make clear that I don’t believe this should be a conservative vs. liberal debate.   

John Roberts’ majority opinion added, “When a university admits students ‘on the basis of race, it engages in the offensive and demeaning assumption that students of a particular race, because of their race, think alike’… at the very least alike in the sense of being different from nonminority students.”   

For me, the idea of stereotyping students, or for that matter any persons on the basis of race, is just simply wrong. It is also very unfair. Our Founding Fathers wrote again and again that we must be all equal by law at the starting line, but we are not equal at the finish line.  

HARVARD REACTS TO SUPREME COURT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION RULING: DIVERSITY IS ‘ESSENTIAL TO ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE’ 

Indeed, we fought a tragic civil war to prove that point and then came the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments. I am most certainly not a constitutional lawyer, but I’ve always been opposed to racial preferences, no matter where they exist.   

Generations ago, Jewish people were discriminated against, Catholic people were discriminated against, other ethnic groups were discriminated against and — yes, certainly — African-Americans were discriminated against. Recently, Asian-Americans have been discriminated against.   

It’s all wrong. Here’s a point: President John F. Kennedy helped bring in the idea of affirmative action early in his presidency, but Kennedy made clear that he was not in favor of racial preferences: “Race has no place in American life or law.” Big hat-tip to my long-time friend, Ward Connerly, on that point.

JFK’s idea of affirmative action was to stop racial preferences and bigotry. That is a much different policy than the one that so many universities and other institutions have lately been pursuing, where racial preferences govern decisions.  

I think the distinction between the JFK view and the view of today’s far-left, woke people is crucial. It’s a pity that President Joe Biden is rejecting the JFK view and suggesting the Supreme Court is a “rogue” institution. “This is not a normal court,” Biden said. Well, yes it is, sir, a court chosen through our democratic institutions, and then he rushes to direct the Department of Education to figure out “practices to help build a more inclusive and diverse student body.”  

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The U.S. Supreme Court building is shown, May 4, 2022 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File / AP Newsroom)

In other words, he’s trying to figure out ways to get around the Supreme Court decision. Abraham Lincoln talked about an America “conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Martin Luther King proclaimed his vision that his children not be judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character.   

Finally, Justice Clarence Thomas, filing a concurring opinion, talked about the originalist defense of the colorblind Constitution and pointed out that no one on the side of racial preferences was able to explain “how racial diversity yields educational benefits.” Personally, I just yearn for a merit-based, colorblind society, and I have my entire professional life. I believe that’s the American way. I believe that is the American idea and I’ll leave it at that.  

This article is adapted from Larry Kudlow’s opening commentary on the June 29, 2023, edition of “Kudlow.”