‘Colour-blind’ conservatism has holes in its logic

The Supreme Court and President Donald Trump's administration are mounting parallel crusades to virtually eliminate the use of race in government decision-making.

- Ronald Brownstein, Tribune News Service

With one conspicuous exception. Between them, the court’s Republican-appointed majority and the Trump administration have severely limited, and in some cases outright banned, the consideration of race to remedy prior discrimination or to promote greater racial and ethnic diversity in virtually any setting, including college admissions, public and private sector employment, and government contracting.

But simultaneously, the Trump administration has declared that race is a legitimate factor for federal immigration officials to consider when deciding who to target. And in a landmark emergency docket ruling earlier this month, the six GOP-appointed justices, over the fierce dissent of their Democratic-appointed colleagues, agreed.

That contrast illuminates how the Trump administration and the Supreme Court majority are building a split-level legal paradigm when it comes to race—one that future generations will find difficult to dislodge, even as White people become a minority of the population.