(NewsWorthy.news) – A Supreme Court justice released a critique of a landmark ruling on its anniversary, stating that the nation’s highest court abused its authority in the 1954 decision.
On Thursday May 23, Justice Clarence Thomas took aim at the ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which was celebrated earlier this month on its 70th anniversary. He made the comments in an opinion issued on a recent ruling that allows South Carolina to keep its congressional district map which, according to some, is discriminatory towards black Americans for the benefit of the GOP.
Regarding the Brown case, Thomas suggested that the decision—which barred race-based segregation among schools—engaged in an overreach of authority. In 1991, the justice replaced the Court’s first black member, Thurgood Marshall, who was the lead attorney in the famous Brown case.
According to Thomas, the nation’s highest court used a “boundless view of equitable remedies” to come to the decision in the school segregation case. He added that these “remedies” were obtained via “uses of judicial power” which he described as “extravagant.” The actions of the court were motivated by an effort to eliminate racial segregation during the Civil Rights movement.
However justified the motivation might be, Thomas pointed out in his recent opinion that federal courts are only legally allowed to provide equitable relief instead of “flexible power” that leads to the development of new methods that “may seem useful at the time.” The Brown case, which earned a 9-0 decision from the court in 1954, labeled the previously held mantra of “separate but equal” to be unconstitutional, propelling the Civil Rights movement into the 1960s.
Thomas’ written critique of the decision stands in contrast to the Biden administration’s celebration of the ruling, in honor of its 70th anniversary. In a May 16 press release from the White House, President Joe Biden praised the ruling as upholding diversity in schools and “call[ed] upon” citizens “to honor” all those who have “fought for decades” to ensure an “equitable” school system in America.
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