Clarence Page: Supreme Court pointed to affirmative action options

Reading about the Supreme Court’s unsurprising affirmative action ruling, I was reminded of Sen. Hubert Humphrey’s defense of the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act. If anyone can find language in the bill, said the Minnesota Democrat, that would require an employer to hire based on percentage or quota related to color, race, religion or national origin, “I will eat my hat.” The bill passed and, fortunately for Humphrey, he never had to eat his hat, despite a half century of arguments over how precise racial or ethnic “goals” or “timetables”...