PETER KIRSANOW OP-ED: Treating Preferential Treatment

Critics of Judge John Roberts’s nomination to the Supreme Court repeatedly contend that he is hostile to civil rights. Numerous media reports warn that Roberts’s opponents are prepared to attack him on this issue, citing his alleged position as one of the principal architects of the Reagan administration’s civil-rights policies. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights member and conservative Republican disagrees, and argues that Judge Roberts merely opposes identity politics and racial and gender bean counting: "It’s odd that Roberts’s opponents would attack his confirmation on an issue where public sentiment clearly supports the positions in Roberts’s memo. Polls regularly show that a significant majority of Americans, including a plurality of minorities, oppose the use of preferences (the numbers tighten when the more benign term 'affirmative action' is polled). The good news for his opponents is that whatever effect polls may have on Roberts’s chances for confirmation, his judicial approach to preferences won’t be governed by poll. The bad news for Roberts’s opponents is that his approach will be governed by law."