The Case for Colorblind Justice Vol. Basic Books, 1996. Basic Books, 1996. Reviewed by Steven Kautz, Department of Political Science, Emory University.
Affirmative action is once again under fire.
The practice of affirmative action is of course pervasive today. So the advocates of the color-blind principle seem to occupy the moral high ground, since it is hard to specify the principle of affirmative action in liberal terms. Lately, the assault on affirmative action seems to have intensified. In Defense of Affirmative Action demonstrates the continuing vitality of the case for affirmative action in the face of such criticisms as Eastland s, which are founded on a liberal idea of color-blind justice that has now substantially been abandoned by the partisans of affirmative action. Together, these books suggest that the end of controversy regarding affirmative action is not in sight, in part because these continuing quarrels reflect a deeper disagreement about the justice of the liberal principles themselves, so far as these principles hold the rights of individuals as fundamental.