Sotomayor and Jackson slam idea that U.S. is ‘colorblind’

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June 29, 2023

By Nicole Acevedo, NBC News

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is working on a memoir. Jackson, the first Black woman appointed to the court, is calling the book “Lovely One." “Mine has been an unlikely journey,” (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File) — Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is among the opponents of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson accused their conservative colleagues on the Supreme Court of ignoring the persistent presence of racism in the United States in striking down affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday.

Sotomayor, in a 69-page dissent in a case against Harvard, characterized the court’s ruling as one that “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

In deciding “that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions,” the court effectively “cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter,” Sotomayor wrote.

Sotomayor, the third woman and the first Latina member of the court, has described herself as a “perfect affirmative action baby.” Jackson is the first Black woman on the court.

Read their words about this case.

Since BLM, many people understand why being colorblind is not only impossible to achieve but harmful.

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