Posted by Orin Kerr:
Greenhouse on Roberts and Race:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_18-2009_01_24.shtml#1232395994
In [1]an essay comparing John Roberts and Barack Obama, Linda
Greenhouse makes a link between Roberts' career success and his
approach to the constitutionality of affirmative action:
Doing well in all the right places � a huge achievement but in some
ways a career path without risk to a sense of identity � offered
great rewards and appears to have left [Robert] with few doubts
about how the world works, or should work, if his legal writings
are the measure. �The way to stop discrimination on the basis of
race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race,� was his
uncomplicated explanation in a 2007 opinion on why Louisville and
Seattle could not constitutionally use student assignments to keep
their public schools from resegregating after finally having
achieved a measure of integration.
Can anyone help me draw the link here? I can see arguing that a
person had a lot of success in a meritocracy might have a strong
belief in meritocracy, so much that they would oppose affirmative
action. But as far as I can tell, Greenhouse isn't suggesting that.
Rather, she appears to be suggesting that Roberts' success makes him
overconfident, and that his overconfidence leads him to uncomplicated
(which I think it's safe to say here means "overly simplistic") views
of hard constitutional problems. But it's hard to see how Roberts'
view of the constitutionality of affirmative action supports this:
Justice Thomas has the same view, and I don't think Justice Thomas's
life has been a story of constant success that left him with few
doubts about the world. Maybe the idea is that Greenhouse is so
strongly in favor of affirmative action that someone who thinks it is
simply unconstitutional must have a quirky life history to explain it?
Finally, in light of the recent articles comparing Obama and
Roberts, ranging from Greenhouse's in the New York Times to[2] Dahlia
Lithwick's in Newsweek, I should flag [3]my own post drawing this
comparison back in August.
References
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/18/weekinreview/18greenhouse.html
2. http://www.newsweek.com/id/180102
3. http://volokh.com/posts/1219943140.shtml
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