The Supreme Court rejected a series of appeals from conservatives Monday on hot-button issues like DEI and gun control.
More than a year after the court ended affirmative action in colleges, the justices declined to take up a case on the use of race in admissions in Boston's high schools. The court also turned away a Second Amendment challenge to Hawaii's draconian gun laws and a controversy on transgender policy in schools, the Washington Examiner reported.
Two of the court's most reliable conservatives, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, disagreed with the court's decision to reject the appeal of Boston parents who challenged anti-white and anti-Asian admissions policies at three prestigious high schools.
The criteria indirectly factored in race by using ZIP codes, leading to a drop in white and Asian students accepted. Since the policies are no longer in effect, Justice Neil Gorsuch argued the court should not review the case, but he did not call it completely moot.
Dissenting, Alito and Thomas expressed concern about a lower court's analysis that relied on "disparate impact" theories that the Supreme Court previously rejected when striking down affirmative action in 2023.
“I would reject root and branch this dangerously distorted view of disparate impact. The Court, however, fails to do so today, so I must respectfully dissent,” Alito wrote.
Although the Supreme Court formally ended affirmative action, liberal schools and universities have sought workarounds. Chris Kieser, a senior attorney at the Pacific Legal Foundation, told the Washington Examiner that the Boston case shows the continued danger of racial discrimination in admissions.
"Boston Public Schools’ use of a ZIP Code quota as a naked proxy for race violates the Constitution’s promise of equal protection," he said.
“Regardless of today’s disappointment, the government’s use of skin color or ethnicity to choose who can attend public schools is a critical constitutional question that must be settled,” Kieser added.
In a separate matter, the court declined to take up a challenge from a man who was charged under Hawaii's strict gun control laws, which require "special need" to get a license.
The case led to a bizarre and extraordinary rebuke of the Supreme Court by Hawaii's top court, which invoked the "spirit of Aloha" while rejecting the Supreme Court's precedent in the landmark case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen. The ruling led to a nationwide rollback of strict gun laws and spurred liberals to find ways to circumvent the court's decision.
Thomas and Alito criticized the Hawaii court's ruling as contradictory to Bruen, but they rejected the case Hawaii v. Wilson on technical grounds. However, they said they are open to hearing an "appropriate case" to vindicate the right to bear arms in the future.
The Supreme Court also declined to get involved in a dispute in a Wisconsin school district that allows students to "transition" without parental consent. A lower court found the parents lacked standing to bring the case, but Thomas, Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh said they would have heard the case.
While progressives argue the Supreme Court is a rubber stamp for the right, that's clearly not true. That does not mean the court has not granted some significant victories for conservatives, however.
In one of the first major cases of the new term, the Supreme Court seemed open to allowing states to restrict transgender surgeries on minors.
