Given the historical precedent this course is based upon, this opinion’s proximity to the notion of “equal protection” is rooted in a version of equality that is inconsistent with historically specific acts of exclusion. Of course, this is a controversial matter, and is subject to many differing readings, but the way in which the notion of equality is compulsorily paired with the rights of individuals, as opposed to groups, limits the scope of consideration in ways that exclude understandings of trends and widespread, systemic acts of managing difference and perpetuating segregation. Establishing equality as a personal right proves effective in the way it is able to fashion a narrow understanding of race, exclusion, and belonging. Of course, this case lies on the experience of Bakke, but an opinion like this one, fails to understand the way a narrow application like this might eclipse the broader understanding of the educational system’s failings in order to provide true recourse. The guarantee of equal protection is tricky, given that it does rest on the same treatment of people of different identities and from different circumstances but the issue this opinion fails to raise is the way in which equal protections does not exist in a vacuum, and in fact, must interact with the material realities that demand action. While equal protection might truly require a broad and consistent application, it must come from an understanding of the way legacies of disenfranchisement led to the need for this kind of protection.
