Karine Jean-Pierre on Affirmative Action

Karine Jean-Pierre went on MSNBC and said the Supreme Court removed “important constitutional rights,” with their affirmative action ruling.

“This is really, really important and I know the American people are really tracking this, as they should be. Dobbs’ decision, that was something that was decided on a year ago. Really took away the freedoms from women. I think about abortion, I think about reproductive rights.” Jean-Pierre continued, “And that was unprecedented. Now you fast-forward to what we saw last week, affirmative action. Again, taking away important constitutional rights that have been in place for a long time,” Jean-Pierre said.

Just because something has been in place for a long time does not mean that it was right. The Supreme Court rejected the use of race as a factor in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause in their ruling on June 29. This ruling has upset a lot of democrats and has ended the use of affirmative action in college admission processes.

In Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion, he wrote, “Or a benefit to a student whose herit­age or culture motivated him or her to assume a leadership role or attain a particular goal must be tied to that student’s unique ability to contribute to the university. In other words, the student must be treated based on his or her ex­periences as an individual—not on the basis of race.”

It is cut and dry. Students must now be judged based on their experiences as a person, not on the basis of their race. Affirmative action should no longer have an impact on who colleges admit.

To hear Tony Katz’s thoughts on Jean-Pierre’s comments on the affirmative action decision, click the link below.