Re: Puzzles re: Grutter and Korematsu - is deference compatiblewith strict s...

[Robert Justin Lipkin]

In a message dated 6/27/2003 9:39:48 AM Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

All laws burden some persons more than other.  So, if we are going to talk about disfavored classes (and this does seem to make sense to me) we need to talk either about the general pattern of law, the general pattern of political power, or the general pattern of advantage in a society.

       I agree. The Plessy example must include the relevance of race in picking out the disfavored class.  Further, my appeal to Plessy was not intended to make a general point about racial classifications or disfavored classes, except to say that if Justice O'Connor's use of strict scrutiny in Grutter was used in Plessy the Court might have deferred to the state's judgment of law that segregation is a compelling interest if it first deferred to the state's factual judgment that segregation was essential to safe transportation. But perhaps I've misunderstood Mark's point here.


Bobby Lipkin
Widener University School of Law
Delaware