Biden slams ‘not normal’ justices for affirmative action ruling
WASHINGTON — President Biden blasted the conservative majority on the Supreme Court Thursday after the justices struck down most race-based affirmative action in college admissions.
“This is not a normal court,” the 80-year-old president told reporters at the White House after a speech in which he encouraged colleges to adopt more subtle ways of ensuring diversity.
Biden said during a subsequent MSNBC interview in New York City that he was thinking about how the court also rescinded federal abortion rights last year by reversing the longstanding Roe v. Wade precedent.
“What I meant by that is it has done more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any court in recent history. And that’s what I meant by not normal,” the 80-year-old president said.
“It’s gone out of its way to — for example, take a look at overruling Roe v. Wade. Take a look at the decision today. Take a look at how it’s ruled on a number of issues that have been precedent for 50-60 years sometimes. And that’s what I meant by not normal.”
In the same interview, Biden chided former President Donald Trump’s administration for allegedly politicizing the legal system by criticizing the Justice Department.
“The last administration tried to direct the court, tried to push the court — I mean, whether it was the Fed or the court or our institutions that are supposed to stay hands off. So I have never engaged in that. And it’s not my role to do that,” Biden insisted.
Hours before his rare live interview from a Midtown TV set, Biden outlined how he thought colleges should respond to the landmark ruling — imploring them to consider applicants’ socioeconomic status and their experience with overcoming adversity — including racial discrimination.
“Today I want to offer some guidance to our nation’s colleges,” Biden said at the White House shortly after the ruling. “What I propose for consideration is a new standard where colleges take into account the adversity a student has overcome when selecting among qualified applicants.”
The Supreme Court ruled in lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that using race as a qualification violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The Harvard case was brought on the grounds of discrimination against Asian Americans.
Biden, a graduate of the University of Delaware and Syracuse University’s law school, said colleges should rework admission policies to meet similar ends as now-banned race-based analysis.
The president said “adversity should be considered, including a student’s lack of financial means” — describing a longtime counterproposal to race-based affirmative action that would benefit poor students of all races, but disproportionately African-Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics.
Biden quoted from Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion to suggest race can still play an indirect role in admissions.
“The court says, ‘nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an application’s discussion of how race has affected his or her life … be it through discrimination, or inspiration or otherwise.’ Because the truth is — we all know it —discrimination still exists in America.”
“Students from the top 1% of family incomes in America are 77 times more likely to get into an elite college than one from the bottom 20% of family incomes,” the president added.
Biden said his counterproposal “also means examining where the student grew up and went to high school. It means understanding the particular hardships that each individual student has faced in life, including racial discrimination.”
“The odds are stacked against working people for much too long. We need a higher education system that works for everyone from from Appalachia to Atlanta and to far beyond,” he went on.
Biden ended his remarks by saying he was directing the Education Department to look into whether it’s appropriate for elite colleges to give deference to the children of alumni.
“Today I’m directing the Department of Education to analyze what practices help build more inclusive and diverse student bodies and what practices hold that back, practices like legacy admissions and other systems that expand privilege instead of opportunity,” he said.
Biden, the first president since Ronald Reagan who did not attend an Ivy League institution, called on colleges to continue to encourage first-generation students and “keep an open door of opportunities.”
