Sotomayor accuses colleagues of trying to ‘wish away’ racial inequality

*Justice Sonia Sotomayor went to the mat to counter Justice Roberts’ well known adage that “the way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” Sotomayor was one of two dissenting voices in a case about affirmative action in Michigan. The new Sotomayor adage is “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to speak openly and candidly on the subject of race, and to apply the Constitution with eyes open to the unfortunate effects of centuries of racial discrimination.” VL

By Robert Barnes, Washington Post

Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s fierce defense of the affirmative action efforts such as the ones that helped move her from a Bronx housing project to the upper echelons of American law found renewed voice Tuesday in an impassioned dissent that accused colleagues of trying to “wish away” racial inequality — and drew a tart response from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.

In her most personal moment in 41 _/2 years on the court, Sotomayor read part of her dissent from the bench to emphasize her disagreement with six colleagues who upheld Michigan’s constitutional amendment banning the consideration of race in public university admissions.

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It is a 58-page dissent, longer than the combined efforts of four other justices who wrote. The court’s first Latina justice directly took on Roberts’s view . . . READ MORE