Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/11-345_l5gm.pdf
Page Number: 26

Cite as:  570 U. S. ____ (2013) 

9 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

criminatory  admissions  program  prepares  its  students  to 
become  leaders  in  a  diverse  society.  See,  e.g.,  Brief  for 
Respondents  6  (arguing  that  student  body  diversity  “pre-
pares students to become the next generation of leaders in
an  increasingly  diverse  society”).
  The  segregationists
likewise  defended  segregation  on  the  ground  that  it  pro-
vided  more  leadership  opportunities  for  blacks.  See,  e.g., 
Brief for Respondents in Sweatt 96 (“[A] very large group 
of  Northern  Negroes  [comes]  South  to  attend  separate
colleges,  suggesting  that  the  Negro  does  not  secure  as 
well-rounded a college life at a mixed college, and that the 
separate college offers him positive advantages; that there 
is  a  more  normal  social  life  for  the  Negro  in  a  separate 
college; that there is a greater opportunity for full partici-
pation  and  for  the  development  of  leadership;  that  the 
Negro  is  inwardly  more  ‘secure’  at  a  college  of  his  own 
people”);  Brief  for  Appellees  in  Davis  25–26  (“The  Negro
child  gets  an  opportunity  to  participate  in  segregated
schools  that  I  have  never  seen  accorded  to  him  in  non-
segregated  schools.    He  is  important,  he  holds  offices,  he
is  accepted  by  his  fellows,  he  is  on  athletic  teams,  he has 
a  full  place  there”  (internal  quotation  marks  omitted)).
This argument was unavailing.  It is irrelevant under the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  whether  segregated  or  mixed
Indeed,  no  court  today 
schools  produce  better  leaders. 
would  accept  the  suggestion  that  segregation  is  permissi-
ble because historically black colleges produced Booker T. 
Washington, Thurgood Marshall, Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and  other  prominent  leaders.    Likewise,  the  University’s 
racial  discrimination  cannot  be  justified  on  the  ground 
that it will produce better leaders.

The  University  also  asserts  that  student  body  diversity 
improves  interracial  relations.  See,  e.g.,  Brief  for  Re-
spondents 6 (arguing that student body diversity promotes 
“cross-racial  understanding”  and  breaks  down  racial  and
ethnic stereotypes).  In this argument, too, the University