Two judges aided by affirmative action disagree on its future

The Supreme Court’s most senior conservative, Justice Clarence Thomas, and its most senior liberal, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, both rose from humble beginnings to join the elite ranks of Yale Law School – and both have publicly credited race-based affirmative action initiatives with helping them get there, write Devin Dwyer and Patty See for ABC News.

But both justices have now staked out starkly opposite positions on whether the policy should be allowed to continue, facing off in a pair of blockbuster cases that will be decided this month and address the future of race in college admissions.

“Even as these people have very similar experiences across the board, the way that they react to them is radically different,” said Leah Wright Rigueur, an associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University who specialises in race, politics and civil rights. “Both had radicalising experiences with racism and discrimination, and if it's true that those radicalising experiences can push someone to the left, then it's also true that those radicalised experiences can push someone to the right,” she said.
Full report on the ABC News site