On the recordJuly 12, 2023
I will address one of the very important Supreme Court decisions which came down in the last couple weeks and some of the comments that have been made critical of that decision. I am talking about the one that dealt with a policy now known in the United States as affirmative action. What that policy does is it gives, as a practical matter, preferences both on the basis of race and gender in university admissions. Actually, the public debate should go beyond that because in this country not only do we have a policy in which we try to have certain groups jump ahead of other people based on test scores or grade point average, we also have preferences, or encourage, as a practical matter, preferences in hiring for government jobs as well as hiring in jobs working for a private organization, if that private organization has at least 50 employees and does business with the Federal Government. There are also preferences with regard to government contracting. As a practical matter, we have had these preferences since 1965. We are talking about things that are 67 years old. I will point out that sometimes with regard to government contracting, it encourages lying. I have talked to people in my district who talk about their colleagues putting businesses in the name of their wives so they can get the preference for a woman-owned business even though the guy continues to run the business. My friend doesn't like it because he is an honest person and he refuses to lie.…
