Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid criticized Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia after the latter, during an affirmative action case, suggested African-American students do better in "less-advanced schools."
"These ideas that he pronounced yesterday are racist in application if not intent. I don't know about his intent but it is deeply disturbing to hear a Supreme Court justice endorse racist ideas from the bench on the nation's highest court," Reid said, according to The Hill.
Reid was referring to Scalia's argument during Fisher v. the University of Texas at Austin being heard at the Supreme Court. "There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a less -- a slower-track school where they do well. One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas," Scalia said during the case, reported CNN.
Reid read Scalia's comments on the Senate floor and was scathingly critical about them. He later took to Twitter to make his criticism more public.
Key difference between the ideas endorsed by Trump and Scalia is that Scalia has a robe and a lifetime appointment. https://t.co/y8lJSpRGOO
— Senator Harry Reid (@SenatorReid) December 10, 2015
"These ideas that he pronounced yesterday are racist in application, if not intent. It is deeply disturbing to hear a Supreme Court justice endorse racist ideas from the bench of the nation's highest court," Reid said, according to The Huffington Post.
The senior Senator went on to compare Scalia's comments to Donald Trump, who had recently demanded that all Muslims should be banned in the U.S., as HNGN previously reported.
