HIGH NOON FOR DIVERSITY

James Joyner | Tuesday, May 20, 2003

George Will thinks how the Supreme Court rules on the Michigan affirmative action cases may come down to the personal relationship between the late Justice Lewis Powell, who wrote the famous Bakke decision upon which modern affirmative action programs are based, and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the likely swing vote in the case. He says this without judgment, but simply as a statement of how such things sometimes work:

The late Justice William Brennan reportedly said that the most important word in the Supreme Court is not “justice” or “equality” or “law” but “five.”

Quite so.

About the Author: James Joyner is the publisher of Outside the Beltway and the managing editor of the Atlantic Council. He's a former Army officer, Desert Storm vet, and college professor with a PhD in political science from The University of Alabama. He lives just outside the Beltway in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife and infant daughter.

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