Who would have guessed that the “lived experience” of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh would provide a glimmer of hope to liberals dismayed by the Court’s decision on race-conscious admissions policies in colleges and universities?
The majority opinion states that “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
When Brett Kavanaugh was 17 years old, his application essay to Yale University described, in poignant detail, the challenges he faced as an Irish Catholic male growing up in the United States. He wrote, “Everyone expected me to booze it up because I was an Irish guy. And I surrendered to that stereotype. From 1979 to 1982 I was intoxicated so often that I can recall very little from that debauched period of my life. I knew it was time for me to stop drinking when, in the summer of 1982, I awoke one Sunday morning in the Giant Panda habitat at Washington, DC’s National Zoo. A panda was lying on its back next to me, smoking a cigarette. At that moment I resolved never to drink another beer for the rest of my life. I have kept that promise, except when I haven’t. Please admit me to Yale.”
Chief Justice John Roberts has acknowledged that Kavanaugh’s saga is the reason that the above-quoted sentence appears in the majority opinion.
Thank you, Justice Kavanaugh.
High school seniors, start writing.