'Discrimination Against Asian-Americans Is Wrong - Yes Or Now?': Hawley Grills Biden Nominee

thank you mr chairman congratulations to all the nominees ms hodge i want to ask you about an article that you wrote for bloomberg about uh affirmative action universities you wrote you argued that opposition to race-based affirmative action i'm going to quote you now is rooted in part in the belief that racism and systems that imposed barriers based on race in american society no longer exist end quote i had been under the impression that the argument was actually the opposite that race-based affirmative action imposes race-based barriers on particular racial groups now your article was about the harvard case so i take it you're familiar with that case is that fair to say thank you senator for the question yes i was writing an article following the decision that was made by the first circuit on that in that particular piece of bloomberg gotcha so the court documents court filings from that case from the harvard case state that quoting now asian americans needed s.a.t scores that were 140 points higher than white students all other quantifiable variables being equal to get into these elite schools the same court filings also show that asian american students who had the same score as african-american students were about 25 percent likely to get into harvard whereas the african-american student was 95 likely to get into harvard so basically what what the documents show is and i don't know if there's much dispute about this that asian americans are systemically discriminated against with these race-based policies that's a problem don't you think senator i will say and thank you for the question i'm not intimately familiar with the entirety of the report or all of the the information that's contained in it i know it is cited um in the case however i would say that with the case that was before the court and currently now is on certiorari and coming before the supreme court that the issue of race as a factor in admissions and utilized in universities is obviously what's going to be contemplated by the court and understanding that the streets strict scrutiny standard is applicable it would be a determination as to whether or not there's a compelling governmental interest and if it's narrowly tailored to afford that interest for all who are asserting the arguments yeah but is it is it a problem i guess my question is is it a problem for universities to make it harder for members of a certain race to be admitted to their university to do it deliberately is that is that a problem that's what your article's about i'm asking you've expressed an opinion on this so i'm just asking about your opinion don't you don't you think that's a problem senator thank you for the question the article was was written in the context of really providing um in essence a procedural roadmap of what had transpired yeah but you explore express though i'm sorry to interrupt you just i've got so little time and i have the article in front of me i enjoyed reading it but you you express your personal views which is fine by the way i'm just asking about them your personal views on this case and and you say that the arguments of those who are arguing against harvard's policies are actually anti-diversity you say that they fail to overcome a principle that's of paramount importance to the country i'm quoting it now diversity matters and its value is immeasurable especially in education i'm just asking you whether or not having asian americans president and able to be admitted on a fair basis with members of other racial groups if if that isn't in fact an interest that serves diversity i mean don't you think that that's important senator harley to your question and thank you again for it what has been stated by the court through years of dialogue and deliberation over this specific issue of affirmative action is that diversity matters and does that include for asian americans for everyone and that's your personal opinion too i'm stating based upon how the court has i'm not putting my personal opinion i believe that if i'm so fortunate to be confirmed to the district court that my personal opinion would have no role in the deliberations that i would conduct i would base all of my decisions on the facts presented the arguments presented by council and or the individual litigants as well as the law and apply the law and precedent um to whatever's presented to me but you surely you could agree with the statement at this level of generality that discrimination deliberate discrimination against asian americans is wrong is that fair to say senator hawley i say that discrimination is is prohibited and people who are discriminated against under the law obviously the work i als also do in terms of employment discrimination if someone is discriminated against based on a protected category that that is something that they um that's protected against under the constitution it's not wrong i mean you can't you can't just say it's it's wrong i'm trying to understand why you're splitting the hairs the way you're splitting them senator i'm not splitting hairs discrimination is is is illegal but my question to you is discrimination against asian americans is wrong yes discrimination against anyone is wrong but judge perez let me

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 930,831

Keywords: Sen. Josh Hawley, affirmative action, Senate

Id: lJQ6ZRlrmZE

Length: 5min 15sec (315 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 07 2022