WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court just ruled on an affirmative action case involving a Seattle school district. The ACRU supports the challenge to the school district’s race-based student assignment plan. In Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, the school district argued its decision to use race is entitled to deference, a presumption of correctness before the law.

ACRU Senior Fellow and constitutional law expert Horace Cooper said that, “The Supreme Court today barred school assignment plans that take account of students’ race. It is a shame that more than 50 years after Brown v. Board of Education was decided by the Supreme Court, school districts are still struggling with whether or not to race or skin color should influence the decision of where children attend school. Today’s ruling narrowly upheld the colorblind principle that all Americans regardless of race are equal under the law. But there’s clearly more work to be done until at least 5 members of the Supreme Court acknowledge that just as our Constitution is colorblind, our public schools should be as well.”

Horace Cooper is a writer, legal commentator and was a visiting assistant professor of law at George Mason University. He also has been Counsel to the Honorable Richard K. Armey, Majority Leader of the United States House of Representatives from 1994 to 2002. Horace Cooper is a Senior Fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research and the Centre for New Black Leadership. He has held senior appointed positions in the presidential administration of President George W. Bush.

The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is dedicated to protecting our fundamental rights and liberties across the board. The ACRU focuses, in particular, on those areas of our civil rights which are ignored, or even actively undermined, by other supposed civil liberties groups. These include property rights, freedom of religion, equality under the law, the right to keep and bear arms, individual liberty and federalism. The ACRU also supports freedom of speech and of the press, sound principles of criminal justice, and proper voting processes and procedures, among others.

American Civil Rights Union

CONTACT: Audrey Mullen for the American Civil Rights Union,

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