It's the Bryan Laira Show on WNYC. Good Monday morning everyone. Hope you had a good weekend. Hope you didn't get flooded out last night. Maybe you had some outdoor fun before that is the air quality got better this weekend. Maybe you went on your first date with Bill Diplosio or Shalane McCray, whatever.

And it may only be July 10th 2023 but make no mistake that 2024 election your politics are well underway. The Republican Party announced over the weekend did you hear this that the first vote the Iowa caucuses will for the first time ever be on Martin Luther King Jr's birthday the federal holiday January 15th in case you're thinking.

That's rich the overwhelmingly white conservative end of affirmative action celebrating Iowa Republican Party scheduling their presidential caucus on King day is that to increase turnout with a white grievance hook.

No the Iowa Republican Party chair Jeff Kaufman says it's doing that to honor the memory of Dr. King. Maybe but the Associated Press also quotes Kaufman saying the committee had not considered the possibility of the caucus falling on MLK day before reaching their decision. So which is worse purposely holding the Republican caucuses on King day or forgetting it was even a thing we report you decide.

And as for those Supreme Court decisions at the end of the term New Jersey's Democratic governor Phil Murphy said on meet the press yesterday on NBC that yeah he hates them but that doesn't mean his party should run on adding justices or imposing term limits.

Yeah as painful as this radical court has been taking away rights and freedoms I'm in the camp that you you play within the rules and I have to say that's a tough conclusion given the extremity of whether it's LGBTQ decisions abortion student loans affirmative action one one got punched after another I think you still play within the rules.

Governor Murphy with Chuck Todd on meet the press but what can the Democrats do what can colleges and employers who value diversity do what can American struggling with student loan debt do within the rules the court has laid down we'll talk about that and more now with Congressman Richie Torres Democrat from the Bronx is 15th New York congressional district often referred to as the poorest by income in the country.

Torres is on the House Financial Services Committee among other things and as one of the first two openly gay black men ever elected to Congress along with Monday or Jones in 2020 at least two of those Supreme Court rulings are relevant to groups he belongs to Congressman Torres always go to have you welcome back to WNBC always a pleasure.

Let's start on those Supreme Court decisions the court decided six to three that taking race into account to build a diverse class of college is unconstitutional how much do you agree or disagree.

The Supreme Court's decision is a tragedy for America as a multiracial democracy the loss of affirmative action is going to lead to less diversity in higher education which will mean less diversity in every facet of American society because higher education is a pipeline into the leadership of our society and so the decision undercuts America as a multiracial democracy and I find it appalling that just this clearance Thomas in particular.

Would dismantle a program that enabled him to be a student at Yale Law School and then ultimately a member of the Supreme Court it's the cruelest irony.

Well you mentioned Thomas but you know a New York Times article on Thomas this weekend I don't know if you saw it or you might know this already noted that he believes that after he graduated from Yale Law School he wasn't getting the offers from the high paying law firms he really wanted to work for it didn't.

Want to go into the judiciary apparently wanted to work for high paying corporate law firm but he wasn't getting those offers he says according to the article because they saw him as an affirmative action applicant who therefore wouldn't be as qualified as the white applicants who had the same education so Thomas argues beyond the constitutional questions that the court ruled on that affirmative action can add a modern kind of disadvantage to black Americans.

Ability to compete in the workplace and they'll be better off the long run without it and therefore be seen as more equal to other applicants with the same qualifications.

Are you aware of that argument from Clarence Thomas and do you totally disagree with him on that given what he says his life experience has been.

I mean his life experience is that he was appointed as the chair of the equal employment opportunity commission and then became a judge in the DC circuit court and then adjust us on the Supreme Court and a former student at Yale University.

So his life experience we demonstrate otherwise that affirmative action can create opportunities for people of color in a country that is a long and ugly history of racism.

Clarence Thomas reports to be a champion of a color blind America but the term color blind has become a code word for turning a blind eye to race and racism and pretending that race no longer matters in America.

The court did say that applicants could write in their essays about how race has affected their lives and admissions offices could take that into account as part of considering people as individuals.

Have you thought about how big a loophole that might be like should every strategic applicant of color include something like that in their materials since everyone is affected by their race in the context of this country everyone can theoretically say how.

Look it speaks to the incoherence of the court's decision because on one hand the court said you cannot check a box identifying your race but on the other hand the court said it's perfectly fine.

To communicate your racial lived experience in an essay but then the court proceeded to state that that cannot be an indirect path to affirmative action so the logic of the decision is all over the place.

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