Civil and Human Rights

Gans on the Race-Conscious Constitution

Ahead of what promises to be a blockbuster Supreme Court term, David Gans has written this post, Race-Consciousness Is Baked Into the Constitution’s Text and History, at the CAC Blog. Gans argues that the notion of a colorblind constitution—the common thread in this term’s cases dealing with the Voting Rights Act and affirmative action—is a “historical fabrication.” Gans notes that the framers of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments enacted a number of race conscious measures to ensure that African Americans could enjoy full citizenship, negating the idea that any consideration of race pursuant to these Amendments is unconstitutional.

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