White House rebukes Supreme Court Justice for race comments

The White House on Thursday disapproved of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's comments which suggested that black college students might be better off at "less-advanced" and "slower-track" schools.

"I think the comments articulated by Justice Scalia represent quite a different view than the priorities and values that President Obama has spent his career talking about," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest at the daily briefing.

"Opening the doors to a college education for every student in America has been a top priority of this administration," Earnest added.

During oral arguments on Wednesday in a case which challenged the University of Texas's race-based admission standards, Scalia questioned whether admitting more black students would eventually benefit those students.

"There are those who contend that it does not benefit African­ Americans to get them into the University of Texas where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less­-advanced school, a slower-­track school where they do well," said Scalia, before citing a brief which claimed that most of the U.S. black scientists "don't come from schools like the University of Texas."

"They (black scientists) come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they're being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them," said Scalia. "I don't think it stands to reason that it's a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible." Endit