Alito Confirmation Hearings: on Education

Joe Biden: Princeton was last Ivy holdout to admit women & minorities

ALITO: Well, Senator, as I've said, I don't have a recollection of having anything to do with CAP. So all I can say is that I put it down on the '85 form and, therefore, I must that been a member at around that time. By the time I entered Princeton, there were many minorities in my class. It went coeducational while I was there.

Sam Brownback: Stare decisis would have upheld separate-but-equal

ALITO: Plessy was certainly wrong.

BROWNBACK: Brown v. Board of Education overturned Plessy, after Plessy had stood on the books since 1896. It was depended upon by a number of people for a long period of time. You've got it sitting on the books for 60 years, twice the length of time of Roe v. Wade. You've got these number of cases that considered Plessy and upheld Plessy. Now, stare decisis would say in the Brown case you should uphold Plessy. Is that correct?

ALITO: It certainly would be a factor that you would consider in determining whether to overrule it.

BROWNBACK: But obviously, Brown overturned it, and thank goodness it did. Correct?

ALITO: The court got it spectacularly wrong in Plessy. And it took a long time for that erroneous decision to be overruled. Separate facilities, even if they were identical, could never give people equal treatment under the law.