Reading Room Document

Constitutionality of Federal Allocation of Funds on the Basis of the Number of "Minority Group Children" within a State

In this opinion, then-Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist rejected the theory, rooted in Justice Harlan’s dissent in Plessy v. Ferguson, that the Constitution is “color blind” and therefore prohibits racial classifications of any kind. Rehnquist explained that most Supreme Court and lower court cases had left open the possibility that “benign” racial classifications could be constitutional. He wrote, however, that “whether this will ultimately prove to be a workable distinction, and whether it is entirely consistent with the logic of broad application of the equal protection clause when invoked by minority groups, admit of reasonable doubt as a matter of original inquiry.”

May 26, 1970