The Double Standard. The National Law Journal has an interesting article (subscription req'd) which begins,

This tale of two conservative judicial nominees, one white and one black, shows that race can still be a sensitive area in federal court nominations.

A coalition of civil rights groups, from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Hispanic and women's groups has raised "grave concerns" about the first black nominee to the Denver-based 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Jerome Holmes, because he has been a "longstanding and outspoken critic of affirmative action."

Meanwhile, little controversy was generated by the nomination to the 10th Circuit of Neil Gorsuch, a conservative white attorney whose book opposing assisted suicide will be released this month. He is the son of the controversial Reagan administration head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Ann Gorsuch Burford.

Holmes, 44, an attorney with Crowe & Dunlevy in Oklahoma City, drew a critical letter signed by 15 civil rights groups, pointing to his 2003 editorial comments in the Daily Oklahoman stating that the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision Grutter v. Bollinger "didn't go far enough." Grutter upheld the University of Michigan Law School's ability to take race into consideration in admissions.

Holmes wrote that the court "missed an important opportunity to drive the final nail in the coffin of affirmative action."