Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said the post-Civil War 14th Amendment protects everyone — not “only the blacks” — during a racially charged debate on affirmative action Tuesday.
The high court appeared poised to uphold a Michigan voter initiative that would ban race as a consideration for college admission.
Scalia took the already-heated argument to another emotional level, targeting African-Americans in his remarks.
“My goodness, I thought we’ve . . . held that the 14th Amendment protects all races,” the conservative Scalia said. “I mean, that was the argument in the early years, that it protected only . . . the blacks.
“But I thought we rejected that. You, you say now that we have to proceed as though its purpose is not to protect whites, only to protect minorities?”
The 14th Amendment was ratified in 1868, granting equal protection to all citizens. It was sandwiched in between the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, and the 15th Amendment, giving the right to vote to all male citizens.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a Bronx native, had harsh words for Michigan’s Proposal 2, saying, “It was intended to bring back segregation, and appears to have done just that.”