Too slow and indirect for him are efforts to change what the justices think through litigation, or who the justices are through the election of presidents and senators who share "the people's" values.
The solicitor general, who is the only federal official required by statute to be "learned in the law" and is sometimes referred to informally as "the 10th justice," supervises appellate litigation involving the federal government and presents the government's views to the Supreme Court.
"Fear of litigation," Justice Kennedy wrote, "cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions".
But he also understood that such suits could prompt political action, and that advocacy inspired by a lawsuit was often more important in achieving justice than the litigation itself".
Mr Justice Cobb described the litigation as "extraordinary".
The Queens district attorney's office declined to comment on its pending litigation against Justice Blumenfeld.
"Fear of litigation alone," Justice Kennedy wrote, "cannot justify an employer's reliance on race to the detriment of individuals who passed the examinations and qualified for promotions".
It found that discrimination was still heavily concentrated in those places and so widespread that case-by-case litigation — what Justice Kennedy has called "very expensive," "very long" and "very inefficient" — is inadequate.
The QC told the judge, Mr Justice Peter Smith: "This present litigation is born out of Sports Direct wanting, so far as it is lawfully entitled, to keep these commercial arrangements confidential under the terms of a written confidentiality undertaking".
When the Tory's Michael Howard announced that his party would repeal the act to "save the nation from an avalanche of political correctness, costly litigation, feeble justice and culture of compensation", he was speaking Daily Mailese and appears to have furnished Straw with his text.
