The GOP presidential field hails the dismantling of affirmative action.
Republicans running for president on Thursday applauded the Supreme Court’s ruling to abolish race-based affirmative discrimination in college admissions, a policy that has fueled the conservative agenda for decades.
Former President Donald J. Trump called the decision a “great day for America” in a statement.
“People with extraordinary abilities and everything else that is necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded,” he said, adding: “We are going back to all things merit-based – and that is how it should be are! “
Mr. Trump’s political organization, the MAGA War Room, cast him as the main catalyst for the court’s ruling to end affirmative action, saying on Twitter that “he kept his promise to appoint constitutional judges.”
It also drew a bizarre comparison between Mr. Trump, the Republican frontrunner who has been indicted twice since leaving the White House, and Abraham Lincoln, one of the party’s iconic ancestors.
“President Trump will end affirmative action as Lincoln ended slavery,” the group continued Twitter.
Mr. Trump named three of the six justices who voted to reject affirmative action in colleges, the same conservative supermajority that won another seismic victory for conservatives a year ago when it overturned Roe v. Wade and struck down the constitutional right to abortion .
Mike Pence, Mr Trump’s former vice president, now a rival in 2024, suggested in a statement Thursday that he deserved some degree of credit for the court’s shift to the right, saying the “blatant” policy “had only served to perpetuate racism”. .”
“I am honored to have played a part in appointing three of the justices who made today’s welcome decision, and as president I will continue to appoint justices who will apply the law strictly rather than twist it to the and serve progressive causes,” he said. .
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Mr. Trump’s main GOP rival, also welcomed the court’s move.
“Admission to the university should be based on merit and applicants should not be judged on their race or ethnicity,” he wrote. Twitter. “The Supreme Court correctly upheld the Constitution and ended discrimination by colleges and universities.”
Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador under Trump, said in a statement that the court’s ruling had reaffirmed how Americans value freedom and opportunity.
“Picking winners and losers based on race is fundamentally wrong,” Ms Haley said. “This decision will give every student – regardless of background – a better chance to achieve the American Dream.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire entrepreneur who graduated from Harvard College, who was a defendant in the Supreme Court case, vowed to take further steps to end affirmative action. In a statement, he said he would rescind a decades-old presidential executive order requiring federal contractors to adopt race-based hiring preferences.
“I’m glad the U.S. Supreme Court has finally put an end to one of the worst failed experiments in American history: affirmative action,” he said. Still, the ruling likely marks the beginning of a new era of ‘shadow’ racial trade-offs and quotas, where elite universities like Harvard and awake employers play games to accommodate their wishes for preferences that benefit perceived ‘marginalized’ groups.”