Only a few days before America celebrates the 233 anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, the Supreme Court of the United States today has made a glorious decision. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 attempted to make equality a reality in the United States by, among other things, requiring businesses and schools to adopt affirmative action. Affirmative action is a process by which schools and business accept and hire individuals based first on a racial and sex quota of individuals attending their school or working for their business. Specifically, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act mandates quotas for minorities in businesses and schools.
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States in keeping with the second part of the Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The City of New Haven failed to uphold the inalienable rights of 19 white and 1 hispanic firefighters by tossing out the scores on a promotion test because too few minorities passed the test. A lower court, which Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor is currently a member of, ruled earlier in the year that the City of New Haven had not done anything wrong by denying the promotion of 19 whites and 1 hispanic firefighters.
Today the Supreme Court over turned the lower court’s decision, by declaring that the City of New Haven violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Justice Kennedy wrote the opinion of the Court, which voted 5-4 to overturn the lower court’s decision. Justices Scalia and Alito wrote concurring opinions. Justice Scalia in particular wrote that this act itself should have been ruled unconstitutional. According to Scalia, “Intentional discrimination is still occurring, just one step up the chain. Government compulsionof such design would therefore seemingly violate equal protection principles.”(557 U.S. 08-328) In specific, Scalia has raised the question as to whether or not anti-discrimination laws, which call for the discrimination against non disadvantaged races, sexes, and nationalities is in fact a violation of the equal protection clause of 5th and 14th Amendments.
Today’s decision has set down that it is not ethical for a business to discriminate against whites simply in order to insure
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