Word: opinionated
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Because of an even split among the other justices, Powell's 55-page opinion has become the authoritative verdict on Bakke. In that Powell's opinion upholds the constitutionality of affirmative action, it is a strong and praiseworthy decision. But serious deficiencies mar the Powell opinion, leaving the future of affirmative action programs in jeopardy...
...Powell's opinion embraces the policies of the Harvard College admissions office, as outlined in Harvard's amicus brief on the case, as "an illuminating example" of the kind of program the Court's decision points to. Harvard's policy, Powell favorably remarks, does not focus on admitting the minority candidate, but rather emphasizes the broader concept of "diversity." Indeed, nowhere in the amicus brief Harvard filed in support of U.C. Davis does the phrase "affirmative action" come into play...
...SECOND DEFICIENCY in the Powell opinion is its vagueness on the subject of racial quotas in hiring practices. And while the use of quotas in admissions offices is of arguable merit, it plays a crucial role in industries. As one construction worker said while taking part in the anti-Bakke demonstrations in Washington last April, "Right now minority hiring in construction is based solely on quota systems. If the Court makes quotas illegal, then we lose about the only thing we have going for us as a people who haven't had the opportunity to get a good education." Although...
...case. In addition, more than 30 applicants in each year Bakke applied would have been admitted ahead of him on the basis of benchmark scores, even if 16 slots had not been aside for the Special Program. An overabundance of material outside the trial record challenges Powell's opinion that Bakke was rejected from U.C. Davis because of racial discrimination. While it is true that Bakke's admission is of almost no consequence in the face of broader issues the case raises, the decision to admit him, like the ruling against quotas, reflects a difficulty in legal process...
...themselves. Solarz shifted to questions about the Eritrean rebellion in Ethiopia and the civil war in Rhodesia. The students seemed confounded. "You are asking us to perform a great abstraction," complained Álvarez. "No, I'm not," said Solarz, "I'm just asking for your personal opinions." "Our opinion is free, open and democratic," explained Jiménez, "but it must coincide with the foreign policy of the revolutionary Cuban government...