Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is siding with many Democrats in criticizing conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia over comments he made about African-American student achievement during oral arguments earlier this week of the affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas.
“I thought his remarks were very tough,” Trump said of Scalia in an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper that aired Sunday.
“They were very, very tough to a certain community,” the Republican front-runner continued. “I thought it was very tough to the African-American community.”
Scalia’s remarks, made Wednesday, drew accusations of racism from Democrats and liberal activists who claimed that he was arguing that African-American college students are less capable than other students. But Scalia’s supporters have said that he was merely citing academic literature which has found that students granted admission based on affirmative action often struggle to keep up with their peers.
"I don't like what he said" — @realDonaldTrump on Justice Scalia's controversial comments https://t.co/KPjeTsKcFg https://t.co/1Wj0AAyABp
— CNN (@CNN) December 13, 2015
“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well,” Scalia said.
Referencing a friend-of-the-court brief, Scalia said that it “pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas.”
“They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them,” the justice continued.
The remarks received immediate pushback from Democratic politicians and liberal activists.
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid condemned Scalia’s remarks on the Senate floor on Thursday. On Friday, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi called on Scalia to recuse himself from affirmative action cases in the future.
Scalia’s defenders asserted that he was referring to what is known as “mismatch theory,” a theory popularized by UCLA law professor Richard Sander and legal journalist Stuart Taylor Jr. in their book, “Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It’s intended to Help, and why Universities won’t admit it.”
But Trump appears not to buy into the thesis.
“I don’t like what he said,” Trump told Tapper of Scalia. “I heard him, I was like, let me read it again.”
“I’m going ‘whoa!'” the real estate billionaire concluded.
It remains to be seen how Trump’s supporters will respond to their candidate’s criticism of Scalia, who is perhaps the most conservative Supreme Court justice.
In a round-table analysis of Trump’s interview, CNN’s Dana Bash asserted that “for a Republican, for a conservative, to criticize Scalia is anathema.”
“He sounded a lot like Harry Reid sounded there,” she added.