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Notes -
It's not the Constitution that's being read based on its actual text, it's the rest of the antidiscrimination laws.
It's also true that literally, the text of the Constitution allows private discrimination, but it's a "your rules, fairly" sort of thing. Forbidding private discrimination, but fairly, doesn't really follow the Constitution, but it's closer than forbidding private discrimination with an exception for Asians.
Well, mostly. Except for Gorsuch's opinion (and Thomas's agreement), they were ruling under the presumption that part of the antidiscrimination laws were a summary for the equal protection clause. That is, they were ruling as if title VI said "Yeah, those things that the states can't do under the 14th amendment? Federally funded universities can't do those either." I think Gorsuch and Thomas are correct that that reading is incorrect, but the opinion of the court doesn't challenge that precedent.
But yes, I agree on your overall point that these cases are not really about the constitution (although I imagine that this, involving an interpretation of the equal protection clause, will have constitutional repercussions), that was why I'd said that in the first place.
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Man, I now want to go back and frame Title VI as being a "public accommodations law". Sotomayor spent basically the entire 303 dissent just cheerleading "public accommodations laws" and how they're the best things ever, rather than engaging with the First Amendment arguments. Would be funny to port all those blessings onto the other case. "Yeah, Harvard, just like motels, has to be equally willing to provide accommodations, regardless of race. They can use other features, like whether they have enough money to pay, whether they're wearing shoes or a shirt... but they can't use race." I mean, universities aren't exactly motels, but neither are website designers.
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