Harvard Law School’s ‘First Woman of Color’ Upset as Supreme Court Rejects Affirmative Action

Elizabeth Warren ‘won’t stop fighting’ for white people who lie about their race to get ahead

What happened: Elizabeth Warren, the U.S. senator once described as the “first woman of color” at Harvard Law School, expressed her concerns about the decline of affirmative action in university admissions.

• The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that race-based affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
• Warren argued that the “extremist” Court’s decision, supported by the vast majority of Americans, “rolled back the march toward racial justice, and narrowed educational opportunity for all.”

Crucial context: Warren, a former Harvard professor sometimes referred to as “Pocahontas,” repeatedly claimed to be of Native American ancestry throughout her career in academia. She is roughly 0.1 percent Native American, according to the results of a DNA test the senator released in 2018 ahead of her failed presidential run.

• From a Fordham Law Review article published in 1997: “Harvard Law School hired its first woman of color, Elizabeth Warren, in 1995.”

Bottom line: The Court’s decision is bad news for white people who lie about their race to get ahead. People like Elizabeth Warren.

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