In January of 2003 President Bush declared his support for the lawsuit against the University of Michigan’s admissions policies and urged the Supreme Court to strike it down, calling affirmative action unconstitutional.
My cartoon was certainly not the first to point out the hypocrisy behind Bush’s position, so for more on this matter, see the Michael Kinsley column published on CNN the same day this cartoon appeared.
The case in question was Grutter v. Bollinger, which the Supreme Court later decided in favor of the University of Michigan policy. In 2016 Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin upheld affirmative action, but the Court imposed stricter limits.
But this issue is far from resolved. Two new case brought by Students for Fair Admission (SFFA) are attempting to overturn the affirmative action policies of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. SFFA accuses both universities of using racial quotas to maintain a lower percentage of Asian-American students than actually apply for admission. This case has the potential to overturn affirmative action in toto, due to the large conservative majority on the Court.
