Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1995
Abstract
Remarkably, the Supreme Court has held that whites who wish to challenge the constitutionality of affirmative action plans have standing to do so. In Northeastern Florida Chapter of the Associated General Contractors v. City of Jacksonville the Supreme Court upheld the standing of non-minority construction contractors to challenge a minority setaside program under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution. What is remarkable is not that the result reached in the case was wrong, but that the Court was able to reach that result given its most recent standing precedents. In previous Terms, the Supreme Court had taken great pains to infuse prohibitively high standing requirements into the law of justiciability so that it could defer to the political process for the resolution of contentious social issues. In Northeastern Florida, however, the Court seemed to sidestep those precedents precisely so that it could supplant political resolution of the contentious social issue of affirmative action.
Publication Citation
80 Cornell L. Rev. 1422 (1994-1995)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Spann, Girardeau A., "Color-Coded Standing" (1995). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 1931.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/1931