WASHINGTON, DC — A remarkable scene occurred Friday at a conservative judicial conference when a panelist got up and explained to the lily-white audience why affirmative action is still important, dispelling the notion that minorities who attend elite schools should have their qualifications questioned.
Ted Shaw, a professor at Columbia Law School and former president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, drew an eloquent parallel during a Federalist Society convention panel to explain why that notion is problematic. “Why should I not apply taint to white men of a certain age and say, ‘look, you went to college a time when you got a pass or at least you got in to schools where no people of color could get in, so I question your qualifications?’ I don’t do that,” Shaw explained, imploring the audience not to fall in the trap of questioning minority students either. “When I graduated from Columbia Law School, I didn’t take the ‘black bar.’ I took the New York bar, and then the California bar, and passed them”:
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments last month on whether to strike down affirmative action programs across the country. It will render a verdict next year.
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