In yesterday’s oral arguments, Justice Kagan asserted:

I thought that part of what it meant to be an American and to believe in American pluralism is that actually our institutions, you know, are reflective of who we are as — as a people in all our variety. [Transcript 38:24-39:4]

Kagan seems quite clearly to be pushing a concept of equality of result. Kagan includes in “our institutions” not just governmental bodies and universities but also “law firms,” “medical facilities,” and “businesses” (159:11-20). Under her vision, requiring a racial balancing—at least rough demographic quotas—in those institutions that is “reflective” of the American “people in all our variety” would seem to be just “part of what it mean[s] to be an American.”

An alternative and, I would argue, a much sounder understanding of the American creed is that we should strive to provide everyone equality of opportunity and that we should hope and expect that when we do so, talented people of every race and ethnicity will succeed.

There is, to be sure, room to dispute where the line falls between equality of opportunity and equality of result. But Kagan shows no interest in discerning or abiding by that line.