projo.com
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts Jr. wants to outlaw affirmative action, and his tenure will end up linked with the issue of race, CNN senior analyst Jeffrey Toobin predicted at Brown University.
Roberts is not identified with any one issue the way the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist was identified with states’ rights, Toobin said. “But I think he will be, and I think that issue is race. I think he is determined to put his mark on the court, which is the so-called colorblind Constitution. I think he wants to outlaw all affirmative action — in admissions, in employment.”
Toobin noted the Roberts court struck down school-integration plans in Louisville and Seattle, and ruled for white firefighters who said New Haven, Conn., violated their rights by throwing out the results of a promotional test on which few minorities scored well. (The New Haven ruling struck down a decision by a 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel that included Sonia Sotomayor, who is now on the Supreme Court).
Roberts is pushing the court to the right ideologically, Toobin said. “He is not a caretaker chief justice. He is a very conservative person judicially, politically, personally.”
Toobin — a lawyer who is also a New Yorker staff writer and the author of books such as The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court — spoke at Brown on Thursday to mark the 25th anniversary of the A. Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions.
In response to a question from the audience, Toobin said the country’s first black president has been outspoken on many issues. “But when was the last time you heard him say anything about affirmative action?” he asked. “Like, never.”
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