Although during certain periods, the term Supreme Court “Justice” may be seen as an oxymoron, the judiciary branch has helped pave the way for tangible change for various disenfranchised peoples. This essay argues that raising cases in US courts has held a pivotal role in the attainment of increased rights for different social groups, as exemplified by the cases raised by African American, and Asian American groups. The success of such cases is contingent upon a suitable political climate. It has been argued that the Supreme Court makes rulings that it believes can be implemented. Unlike Congress which holds the ‘power of the purse’ or the executive branch which can issue executive orders to carry out its goals, the judiciary has no
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One of the biggest problem’s plaguing the Asian-American community is the pursuit of equal treatment in the educational admissions process. In an attempt to make school more diverse, often times schools are made ‘less-Asian”. Due to the growing number of Asian-Americans, many perspective students find themselves in need of disproportionately higher test scores. In order for an Asian-American student to get accepted into a private college the student would need to score 150 points higher on the SAT than their White counterpart. Although In the wake of NAACP v. San Francisco, one of the cities’ elite public high schools, Lowell High School was forced to take students from a minimum of four out of the nine identified racial/ethnic groups, with no group making up more than 40% of the school’s population to help remediate segregation claims. Out of a sixty-nine-point admissions index, Chinese Americans were forced to score sixty-six points, while “White, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, American Indian, and ‘other non-white’ students” only had to achieve a score of fifty-six. In Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District, the Chinese-American community attempted to raise a case on the grounds that pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment their right to equal protection under the law was being violated. In accordance with Bakke v. California, which struck down specific racial quotas used in admissions for higher education, the plaintiffs felt that since Lowell High School was a very elite public school, that it should be treated the same a college. However, their motion was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit of the US Court of
One of the biggest problem’s plaguing the Asian-American community is the pursuit of equal treatment in the educational admissions process. In an attempt to make school more diverse, often times schools are made ‘less-Asian”. Due to the growing number of Asian-Americans, many perspective students find themselves in need of disproportionately higher test scores. In order for an Asian-American student to get accepted into a private college the student would need to score 150 points higher on the SAT than their White counterpart. Although In the wake of NAACP v. San Francisco, one of the cities’ elite public high schools, Lowell High School was forced to take students from a minimum of four out of the nine identified racial/ethnic groups, with no group making up more than 40% of the school’s population to help remediate segregation claims. Out of a sixty-nine-point admissions index, Chinese Americans were forced to score sixty-six points, while “White, Japanese, Korean, Filipino, American Indian, and ‘other non-white’ students” only had to achieve a score of fifty-six. In Ho v. San Francisco Unified School District, the Chinese-American community attempted to raise a case on the grounds that pursuant to the Fourteenth Amendment their right to equal protection under the law was being violated. In accordance with Bakke v. California, which struck down specific racial quotas used in admissions for higher education, the plaintiffs felt that since Lowell High School was a very elite public school, that it should be treated the same a college. However, their motion was dismissed by the Ninth Circuit of the US Court of