Liberals put diversity ahead of fairness

David Paul Kuhn:

It took the story of one firefighter to expose the tension between fairness and affirmative action.

The nation's four most prominent liberal justices ignored that tension Monday. By consequence, the liberal justices decided that equal outcome should trump equal opportunity, when the two values compete. And in that decision, supported by a chorus of liberal analysts, American liberalism continued decades of thinking that places diversity, not fairness, as its first principle.

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In the end, the Court's conservative majority prevailed in yet another 5 to 4 vote. But it's the minority's dissent, supported by the Obama administration, which stirs up liberalism's ongoing avoidance of affirmative action's negative "real-world" implications.

The uniform liberal Court view on affirmative action takes on a heightened resonance today. Democrats hope President Obama marks the beginning of an enduring political majority. A primary aim of either party, when seeking sustained dominance, is to shift the courts to their side. Had today's Court been left leaning, liberals should be troubled to know, the Court would have almost certainly upheld a policy that denied a promotion based on the color of those promoted.

The Ricci case gets to the core of the American ideal of "the pursuit of happiness" as an "inalienable right." This right was most egregiously denied to blacks through slavery. It was not until the 1960s that the nation finally confronted and outlawed discriminatory practices. Affirmative action was instituted to correct past inequality.

Nearly a half-century later, liberalism faces new questions. In the time of the first black president, when white men's unemployment rate increases at twice the rate of black women in this recession, liberal thought has remained hinged to an earlier era.

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Affirmative action should be limited to recruiting and making sure the doors are open for all. But once people are on the job they should be judged by their performance and attitude. One of those attitudes is the willingness to apply oneself to study and workout so they can be the best. Denying promotion to those who strive to be the best is gross unfairness.