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34  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
THOMAS, J., concurring 

publicly mused about the need for equality as the founda-
tion for government.  E.g., 1 Cong. Register 430 (T. Lloyd
ed.  1789)  (Madison,  J.);  1  Letters  and  Other  Writings  of
James  Madison  164  (J.  Lippincott  ed.  1867);  N.  Webster, 
The  Revolution  in  France,  in  2  Political  Sermons  of  the 
Founding  Era,  1730–1805,  pp. 1236–1299  (1998).    As  Jef-
ferson declared in his first inaugural address, “the minority 
possess their equal rights, which equal law must protect.” 
First Inaugural Address (Mar. 4, 1801), in 8 The Writings 
of Thomas Jefferson 4 (Washington ed. 1854). 

Our Nation did not initially live up to the equality prin-
ciple.  The institution of slavery persisted for nearly a cen-
tury, and the United States Constitution itself included sev-
eral  provisions  acknowledging  the  practice.    The  period
leading up to our second founding brought these flaws into
bold relief and encouraged the Nation to finally make good
on the equality promise.  As Lincoln recognized, the prom-
ise  of  equality  extended  to  all  people—including  immi-
grants and blacks whose ancestors had taken no part in the 
original  founding.    See  Speech  at  Chicago,  Ill.  (July  10,
1858), in 2 The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln 488–
489, 499 (R. Basler ed. 1953).  Thus, in Lincoln’s view, “ ‘the 
natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independ-
ence’ ” extended to blacks as his “‘equal,’” and “‘the equal of 
every living man.’ ”  The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 285 (H. 
Holzer ed. 1993).

As discussed above, the Fourteenth Amendment reflected 
that vision, affirming that equality and racial discrimina-
tion cannot coexist.  Under that Amendment, the color of a 
person’s skin is irrelevant to that individual’s equal status 
as a citizen of this Nation.  To treat him differently on the
basis of such a legally irrelevant trait is therefore a devia-
tion from the equality principle and a constitutional injury. 
Of course, even the promise of the second founding took
time to materialize.  Seeking to perpetuate a segregationist