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Washington D.C., June 23, 2016 - Today, in 4-3 vote, Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of affirmative action in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. In response to the ruling, Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner, Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, issued the following statement:
"We are pleased that the Supreme Court ruled in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin to uphold the university’s affirmative action policy. This decision recognizes the crucial importance of promoting racial and ethnic diversity in our nation’s colleges and universities. Especially today, when difficult but vital conversations about racial injustice occurring in communities across the country, the Court’s ruling is a powerful affirmation that more remains to be done to ensure that all Americans are granted equal access to quality education.
Additionally, this decision maintains the Court’s previous ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger that race may be included as one of a number of factors for admission, thereby guaranteeing that universities will still be able to use one of the most powerful tools at their disposal to foster educational diversity and advance racial justice. The Union for Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis and Women of Reform Judaism joined with the American Jewish Committee in an amici curiae brief to the Court supporting the University of Texas’s policy, and arguing that the Court should reaffirm its decision in Grutter that educational diversity is a compelling state interest.
Midrash teaches that God took dust from all four parts of the world, creating humanity in an array of colors so that none could say they are better than others. The Jewish people are all too familiar with the ways in which injustice and inequity can linger even after formal discrimination has ended. As such, we feel a moral obligation to support measures that seek to correct the wrongs of the past and promote equal rights for all. While not perfect remedies for the deep problem of racial injustice in the United States, affirmative action policies like the University of Texas’s are an important step toward educational equity. We applaud the Court’s decision today to uphold such policies and to support racial and ethnic diversity in our educational system."
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The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism is the Washington office of the Union for Reform Judaism, whose nearly 900 congregations across North America encompass 1.5 million Reform Jews, and the Central Conference of American Rabbis, whose membership includes more than 2,000 Reform rabbis. Visit www.rac.org for more.
