Diversity on SCOTUS

With Sotomayor being grilled, there's lots of discussion everywhere of just about everything to do with the law and judges. This is a good explanation of two possible pros for affirmative action.

A good angle into the question might be to think about two different ways you could justify an affirmative action program. One argument would be that affirmative action is needed to correct a lack of opportunity: You might say (indeed, I would say) that certain groups face historic disadvantages that are worth correcting. A second and distinct justification would be that diversity creates social benefits. The usual argument is that diverse classrooms have better discussions, and a diverse officer corps runs a better military, and a diverse business force helps navigate that cliche of an "increasingly globalized world." More...