Roper: If race is a factor for SCOTUS appointment, what about Asians?

U.S. Supreme Court

Asian Americans, who represent 7.2% of the population according to the 2020 census and are the fastest growing minority demographic in the country, are not and never have been represented on the Supreme Court.

By Rob Roper

With the retirement of Justice Stephen Breyer, President Biden announced his intention to replace him on the Supreme Court with a Black woman. A following ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that an overwhelming majority of Americans, including a majority of Democrats, disagree with that racial approach to filling the seat:

Americans overwhelmingly believe Joe Biden should ‘consider all possible nominees’ (76%) rather than ‘consider only nominees who are Black women, as he has pledged to do’ (23%). Partisanship drives major differences in attitudes about the next Supreme Court pick, with virtually all Republicans saying ‘consider all’ (95%) compared to only half of Democrats (54%). – Ipsos poll, Jan 30, 2022

We agree with that sentiment. But, setting it aside for a moment for the sake of argument, if race is going to be a determinative factor in choosing a justice, why not consider someone of Asian descent?

Blacks, who represent 12% of the US population, have been continuously represented on the nine-member Supreme Court for over half a century since Thurgood Marshall was appointed in 1967 (11% of the Court’s makeup).

However, Asian Americans, who represent 7.2% of the population according to the 2020 census and are the fastest growing minority demographic in the country, are not and never have been represented on the Supreme Court. What’s up with that?

It’s not like Asians haven’t received their share of discrimination in US History.

A number of state and federal laws explicitly discriminating against Chinese immigrants were in effect throughout the mid-19th and early 20th centuries, some of which in the West were every bit as oppressive as Jim Crow laws in the South. The role of Chinese immigrants in building the Transcontinental Railroad, and the conditions under which they did so, is still an unsung chapter in US history. The Chinese Exclusion Acts were not repealed until 1943.

Similarly discriminatory laws were leveled against Japanese immigrants, and, as we all know, Japanese Americans were rounded up and put into camps during World War II.

So, if the objective is to make the Supreme Court “look more like America” and give previously discriminated against minorities a voice, there is a stronger case to be made that it’s time to place an Asian American on the Court.

Just sayin’.

Rob Roper is president of the Ethan Allen Institute. Reprinted with permission from the Ethan Allen Institute Blog.

Image courtesy of Public domain

9 thoughts on “Roper: If race is a factor for SCOTUS appointment, what about Asians?

  1. Can we get a list of all the black female justices/judges that applesauce brain bydone
    has voted down while in the senate?
    No we don’t need a affirmative action pick that votes on the left / right view but do
    sadly need one that votes on the rule of law and constitution.. which they all should be
    doing…

  2. Why are no members of indigenous tribes on the SCOTUS?
    It would be a quantum leap in recognition.
    Traditional mindsets would be morphed.

  3. It would be illegal to base the SCOTUS selection on race and gender. Biden knows that, hell, everybody knows that. His declaration to appoint a black female is BS, political hype. But then again, Biden’s not calling the shots; his progressive, liberal string pullers are. Give him his ice cream, and a nap, and he’ll say anything they want him too…

  4. If we presume there is merit to the idea that we need a black woman to understand how the law applies to blacks, and what society has done to them — then what we ought to be focusing on is listening to successful blacks about what is wrong with those that haven’t made well since here in America we all have the same opportunity to excel.

  5. According to crtical racist training, asians and jews are “super whites”. I cant believe we’re putting this garbage in our schools! Join your local board if you can and advocate for taking the woke out of the tax payer funded public schools.

  6. All this feckless old man in the WH is doing, he figures he’ll get the female and black female
    votes………………… pretty pathetic move !!

  7. I would not like to be the black woman who becomes the next Supreme Court justice. She will, for the rest of her life, have to live with the widely publicized truth that affirmative action put her there and not her own merits.
    But then again,(insert heinous cackle), she and VP Harris will have a lot in common.

  8. Asians are very intelligent.. so they don’t want them.
    Howie Carr has talked for years about what goes on down in Boston with the Asians and the fancy private schools.

  9. Liberal hypocrisy at it’s finest. The whole black thing is just a card the lefties like to play to inflame actual racism. They don’t care about blacks or really any other race. They just like division and virtue signalling while slowly destroying this country with their misguided policies. Or maybe it’s actual intentional? Klaus Schwab anyone?

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