Paper Abstract
8 pages. Justice Harlan, in his famous dissenting opinion in Plessy versus Ferguson, argued that the constitution was color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. Justice Blackmun, in his remarks on the much later affirmative action case of Regents of the University of California versus Bakke, argued that in order to treat some persons equally, we must treat them differently. These two conflicting issues represented in Harlan’s and Blackmun’s judicial statements must be analyzed carefully in order to discern the carefully reasoned arguments that each presented. The question must be asked, how successfully do affirmative action policies and the arguments for and against them address Harlan’s and Blackmun’s principles? Examination of the fourteenth amendment and the ways the Supreme Court has come to interpret it, as well as the general law and affirmative action, must be addressed within their historical and social context. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
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