Back in 2003, Justice O’Connor authored one of her most intellectually feeble opinions, the Grutter decision that gave public universities the green light to use racial preferences in their admissions, as long as they didn’t do so in too mechanical a fashion. Grutter was a 5-4 decision with very strong dissents. In this NRO column, civil rights lawyer Peter Kirsanow speculates on the possibility that if Roberts is confirmed, he could be the vote to overturn Grutter and other racial preference cases.
Expect Ted Kennedy and friends to try to paint Roberts as “an enemy of civil rights” if he doesn’t say that he regards racial preferences as good, settled law.
