Re: Puzzles re: Grutter and Korematsu - hispanics and segregatedschools

[David Bernstein]

And to put this in constitutional terms, the hallmark of an equal protection violation has always been arbitrariness, and giving the Argentine of Italian descent an AA boost, but not a host of other worthy applicants who also have interesting backgrounds (and, like the Argentine, are considered by themsleves and everyone else to be white) on the ground that this hypothetical Argentine is a member of an ethnic/racial category called "Hispanic" strikes me as exceedingly arbitrary. 

In a message dated 7/3/2003 3:51:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

First, David Bernstein has a good point on sweeping affirmative action
stereotypes.  While a Mexican-American kid who grew up in the Texas Valley
may be deserving of AA, a wealthy Argentine immigrant may not be.
Generalizing by surname is a poor proxy.  With individualized
determinations, we may overcome this inaccuracy.

Professor David E. Bernstein
George Mason University School of Law
http://mason.gmu.edu/~dbernste
blog: http://bernstein.blogspot.com
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My latest book, You Can't Say That!
The Growing Threat to Civil Liberties
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