The Supreme Court issued a series of sweeping, controversial rulings during this past week of their current term. Among them was a decision on Thursday that ended the practice of affirmative action in college admissions. On Friday, the Court ruled in favor of a web designer in Colorado who refuses to create wedding websites for same-sex couples. Morning Host Luis Hernandez spoke about those two rulings with Steven Brown, Executive Director of the ACLU of Rhode Island.
TRANSCRIPT:
Luis Hernandez: How do you think this is going to impact schools in Rhode Island in terms of their ability to cultivate and serve a diverse student body?
Steven Brown: Well, the decision was not unexpected, although it is extremely disappointing. It will make it harder for colleges and universities in Rhode Island, as well as elsewhere, to meet what are really compelling goals of ensuring a diverse student body. But what this decision says is that for those colleges and universities that currently have explicitly used race as a criterion, just one criterion among many, as a factor in deciding who gets enrolled, that is now off the table. It is something that the majority of the Court has said is unconstitutional. What that means is, colleges and universities will need to consider other means. And I think most of them have been using other means to ensure a diverse student body as well, for example, looking at socioeconomic status of individuals, or things of that sort that might also help communities of color, be able to join others in a college or university education.
Hernandez: The Supreme Court also ruled in favor of a web designer in Colorado that refused to serve LGBTQ couples. All right, tell me what you think’s going to happen next. How does this play out?
Brown: What the court decision did was essentially focus on particular types of businesses, businesses that they said have an expressive component to them. In this case, it’s a website designer, who is engaged in expression and making these websites, and the Court said that there’s a free speech, a First Amendment free speech element to that sort of work, that allows them to engage in this sort of discrimination. I mean, the vast majority of public businesses, at least initially, in my opinion, aren’t going to fit into that category – you know, restaurants, medical facilities. You know, these are providing services as public accommodations, there really isn’t an expressive element to it. So hopefully, the harm of this decision will be fairly limited to a small category of, of occupations and businesses.
Hernandez: How do you feel about these last couple of days, as the Supreme Court is, you know, dropping all of these decisions, compared to maybe, you know, big decisions of the past? How does this week play out compared to those?
Brown: Well, this has certainly been a very frustrating week for those who care deeply about civil liberties and civil rights. But, you know, I think we also have to keep in mind that there’s always been a constant push and pull. You know, the United States Supreme Court, if you look at its history over decades, and a couple centuries, it’s routinely been a very, quote unquote, conservative institution, preserving the status quo. And it’s been a struggle for minorities of all kinds – not just racial minorities, but many others, to have the equal protection of the laws that we think the Constitution was meant to give them. So these are certainly setbacks. But I think you can count on civil rights and civil liberties organizations including the ACLU continuing to push back, and recognizing that this is, you know, stop and start. These may be very unfortunate decisions, but we’re going to be pushing forward to continue to promote equality and justice under the law.
