More on the Redactions

A reader sent in some interesting thoughts:

I haven't read all of the redactions, or all of the redacted document, but I think you might be missing one prominent reason for at least some of the redactions: namely, that the passages in question demonstrate that DOJ, even under this Administration, has acted in a manner that would have been unconstitutional according to DOJ's own briefs in Grutter and Gratz. Take the example you give, for instance: "The fact that the current top political leadership of the Department is diverse sends an important, positive message as the beginning of management's leadership strategy." If "diversity" was part of the management's "leadership strategy," and if such diversity in the appointed positions within the Department was being sought in order to send "an important, positive message" -- and both things are undoubtedly true, as anyone can see (putting aside debates about whether the particular message being sent was in fact "important" or "positive") -- then, according to the SG's own briefs, the Department was acting in violation of the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment's due process clause. (Of course, in light of the decision in Grutter, that no longer is necessarily the case.) This is simply one prominent example demonstrating that the folks actually running the Bush Administration did not ever believe what the SG told the Supreme Court -- in other words, file under "Actions Speak Louder Than Words."

These are excellent points, and well worth discussing. It does look like many of the programs currently in place at the DOJ, and many of those recommended in the report would violate either the letter or the spirit of the administration's stated positions in Grutter. Looks like it is a good thing they lost that case.