Ocasio-Cortez calls Thomas comments on Jackson in affirmative action opinion ‘profoundly disrespectful’

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday called a concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas that upended race-based college admissions “profoundly disrespectful” when it came his disagreeing with fellow Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Anchor Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union” asked Ocasio-Cortez to weigh in on “a blistering debate” Thomas and Jackson, the court’s only two Black justices, had in opinions when ultimately striking down affirmative action at colleges.

Thomas wrote in response to Jackson that it was “unfathomable” for her to “label all Blacks as victims.”

“Worse still, JUSTICE JACKSON uses her broad observations about statistical relationships between race and select measures of health, wealth, and well-being to label all blacks as victims. Her desire to do so is unfathomable to me. I cannot deny the great accomplishments of black Americans, including those who succeeded despite long odds,” Thomas wrote in his opinion.

Ocasio-Cortez defended Jackson, who she said issued an opinion “grounded in fact.”

“I mean, what Justice Clarence Thomas wrote there, I believe, is profoundly disrespectful. I just think it was profoundly disrespectful to his colleague. It includes sweeping assumptions about her worldview,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

“Whereas when you look at what, what the response was from Justice Ketanji Brown, we saw that her dissent was grounded in fact, it was grounded in the facts of the case. It did not disparage Clarence Thomas’s overall worldview, but as a matter of fact, [was] a nuanced critique of his analysis of the facts of the case.”

The Supreme Court wrapped up its term last week with several controversial landmark decisions that included effectively ending affirmative action in college admissions.

Thomas read his concurring opinion from the bench, voting with the 6-3 majority that struck down the admissions programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. Jackson knocked the majority in her dissent.

“For him to come out and insinuate that her opinion is due to some sort of inferior or less than, you know, less than really thought-out of a stance, I think it’s profoundly insulting,” Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday of Thomas’s remarks.