June 25, 2003

William Bennett comes out of hiding long enough to comment on the Michigan rulings. And he comes up with a great quote from Justice Harlan's dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson:

"The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color...."

Harlan was flagging the significance of equal -- as in equal before the law -- in "equal protection". A person's equal humanity was not to be squished like a bug for any "compelling state interest".

Posted by Greg Ransom