The U.S. Supreme Court ruled June 28, 2007 that public schools may not rely on racial classifications to make school assignments even for racial balance. The Court claims that it based this decision on the previous Brown v. Board of Education decision and Fourteenth Amendment protections.  

Seattle school district used a partial race-based criterion to help to reduce  racial  concentration in high schools. In addition it used the policy to ensure that racially concentrated housing patterns did not prevent nonwhite students’ access to the most desirable schools. No matter the school districts’ motives, the Supreme Court condemned all plans to achieve racial balance illegitimate.  

Many people deplore this decision as one that signals the end to the Brown v. Board of Education policy that actively attacked racially segregated schools. The Court statements in its decision confirmed its new policy about Fourteenth Amendment protections. Nevertheless, it is still a good decision if it returns government decision making to the color blind status mandated by the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1868 clarified the status and rights of American citizens. Native born and naturalized were the only difference in citizenship mentioned in the Constitution. The Fourteenth Amendment mandated equal protection under the law for all citizens. Since then, the Supreme Court made three pivotal rulings about the meaning of this Amendment.

The Supreme Court’s first ruled in an 1873 decision the Fourteenth Amendment declared states’ laws must be color blind. And, it mandated that all persons shall stand equal before the laws of the States exempt from unfriendly legislation against them distinctively based on skin color.  

Twenty-three years later the Supreme Court corrupted the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment. It decided in the 1896 Plessy v Ferguson decision that this amendment permitted states to pass laws mandating racially “separate but equal” facilities.  This obviously contrived decision encouraged race-based government decisions. It changed America from the Fourteenth Amendment course that led eventually to legal equality to one that led into the putrid cesspool of racism and endless hatred.  

Fifty eight years later, Chief Justice Warren wrote the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision that overturned the Plessy decision. “The ‘separate but equal’ doctrine adopted in Plessy v Ferguson has no place in the field of public education. Separate but equal facilities are inherently unequal” The Court used federal government power to end state sponsored racial segregation and to help cure the damage it caused.

This decision was good and bad for Americans label black. On the one hand it provided government power to end the oppression of racial segregation. On the other hand, it allowed a raced-based federal policy that moved society further from the Fourteenth Amendment requirement for color blind government. A color blind government policy offers the only potential protection for all citizenship and human rights.

This Supreme Court’s June 28, 2007 decision against race-based school assignments is a positive move toward the Fourteenth Amendment’s mandate for color blind federal and state government policy. Still, the Court made other disturbing conclusions in the decision that showed any movement toward a color blind society probably happened by accidental rather than from policy.

The Supreme Court decided in this ruling that it is permissible for government to make race-based decisions at the group level, but not at the individual level. A school district may consider race in deciding a new school’s location, but not to assign individual students to a school. It agreed that universities may include race as a component among others in diversity admissions. In addition, it agrees with government policy that collects race-based information and that publishes race-based surveys, analysis and reports.

This rationalization to support any race-based government policy is contradictory. Either the Constitution provides legal grounds for race-based government decisions, or it does not. If it does, then the Court can define when race-based decisions apply. If it does not, the Court has no constitutional support for any race-based laws or decisions.

The Constitution clearly rules against race-based government policy. Therefore, the Congress or the Supreme Court must rule that all race-based government policies and race-based analysis violate Fourteenth Amendment equal rights protections. We cannot allow any confusion or indistinctness on this issue of Fourteenth Amendment equal protections and mandates for color blind government policy. The Court rationalized its racist 1896 Plessy decision from contrived indistinctness about the meaning Fourteenth Amendment protections.

Kenneth Brooks is a freelance writer and speaker. Contact him at P.O. Box 882, Vallejo, CA 94590. E-mail to: opinion@ethicalego.com.