Posted by Jim Lindgren:
More on the Origins of Justice Roberts's "Stop Discriminating" Language.--
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_15-2007_07_21.shtml#1184700728
As general background on the history of the nondiscrimination ideal,
the best place to start is Andrew Kull's prize-winning The Color-Blind
Constitution (Harvard Press). Kull details the rejection of the
color-blind version of the 14th Amendment in favor of what was viewed
at the time as the weaker and less radical version that was adopted.
And he details the rejection of color-blindness, just a few years
after a consensus was finally reached in 1964 that American law was to
be color-blind. His last main chapter describes the shift away from
color-blindness toward what Justice Brennan called "benign racial
sorting." In the course of that chapter he describes the idea that the
special contribution of American law to reducing discrimination might
be to embrace color-blindness.
The [1]idea that the [2]best way to end discrimination
is to stop discriminating was a common idea by at least the Reagan
Administration. Here is Education Secretary Bill Bennett being
interviewed in 1985 (source LEXIS/NEXIS).
What steps do you think should be taken to eradicate racial
prejudice and discrimination? What steps should be taken, I guess,
are the ones I laid out in my letter to the Equal Employment
Opportunities Commission. That is, we should stop discriminating on
the basis of race, sex, religion, and origin. Stop, stop, stop.
That's where everybody wants to go. The best way to get there is to
get there--that is, to stop. You do not eradicate an unfortunate
legacy by perpetrating another unfortunate legacy. (Meet: William
Bennett; the Secretary of Education; interview NEA Today June,
1985.)
References
1. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_15-2007_07_21.shtml#1184684008
2. http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2007_07_15-2007_07_21.shtml#1184675289
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