​Activists and politicians expressed concern over the possibility of racial bias by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, after the judge of the highest court in the United States said there were “few competent” Black students in higher education, urging them to go to “slower-track” schools instead of so-called elite universities.

The comments came as the Supreme Court Justice was questioned on Wednesday during oral arguments over the affirmative action case, Fisher v. Texas. The legal complaint pushed by plaintiff Abigail Fisher, who claims a person of color took her place at the University of Texas, seeks to halt admission policies that considers racial minorities to promote diversity in universities and educational institutions on the basis that such programs violate the U.S. constitution.

2015 is exposing the reality that racism exists at the highest levels of American jurisprudence. Scalia is a racist pic.twitter.com/PnM34FGHyh — Shaun King (@ShaunKing) December 9, 2015

During the hours-long hearing Wednesday, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia suggested that Black students may benefit from the end of affirmative action admissions policies in U.S. universities as many are “pushed ahead too fast” and should go to “lesser schools” instead.

"I'm just not impressed by the fact that the University of Texas may have fewer (African-Americans)," Scalia said. "Maybe it ought to have fewer. And maybe some -- you know, when you take more, the number of Blacks, really competent Blacks, admitted to lesser schools, turns out to be less."

The judge continued to say that Blacks come from "lesser schools" and should not be put in classes that are "too fast for them."

On Thursday, the judge was slammed by Senate Minority Leader and Democrat Harry Reid, who tore into the Supreme Court Justices' comments, calling them racist.

"These ideas that he pronounced yesterday are racist in application, if not intent," Reid said.

"I don't know about his intent, but it is deeply disturbing to hear a Supreme Court justice endorse racist ideas from the bench on the nation's highest court. His endorsement of racist theories has frightening ramifications, not the least of which is to undermine the academic achievements of Americans, African-Americans especially."

Race wasn't reason Abigail Fisher, plaintiff in affirmative action case, didn't get into UT https://t.co/381fYWUY3e pic.twitter.com/PsKP1qVtpn — Ari Berman (@AriBerman) December 9, 2015

The senator also linked Scalia’s comments to the openly racist and widely condemned rhetoric of controversial national figures like Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump

"As we speak, Donald Trump is proposing to ban Muslim immigration. Other leading candidates are proposing a religious test, tossing around slurs on a daily basis," Reid said. "And now a Republican-appointed justice endorsing racist ideas from the Supreme Court bench. The only difference between the ideas endorsed by Trump and Scalia is that Scalia has a robe and a lifetime appointment. Ideas like this don't belong on the Internet, let alone the mouths of national figures."

The case the justices heard involves a years-long challenge by Abigail Fisher, a white student from Texas who was denied admission to the Austin campus of the University of Texas in 2008. Fisher’s lawyer argued the university’s policy of considering race in its admissions policy violates the Constitution’s equal protection clause.

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Affirmative action refers to policies under which minorities historically subject to discrimination are given certain preferences in order to enhance the racial diversity of a university's student population.

Abigail Fisher really has no case. pic.twitter.com/JoAE59s7dI— David Fonseca (@davefons) December 9, 201

Activists point to the case of another major school, the University of Michigan, where Black enrollment at the institution has dropped from 7 percent in 2006 to about 4.5 percent this year. the decline in the school’s recruitment of minorities is, according to activists, due to the state ban on affirmative action in 2006 through a ballot initiative.

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A statement filed to Wednesday’s hearing by faculty members and students of the University of Michigan said their university’s “nearly decade-long experiment in race-neutral admissions ... is a cautionary tale that underscores the compelling need for selective universities to be able to consider race as one of many background factors about applicants.”

Ending race-based admissions would “have a devastating effect on enrollments,” said Richard Lempert, a University of Michigan law professor, who also filed a brief in the Fisher case supporting the University of Texas. “There would be no fallback, no escape valves … It will decrease diversity and integration on our country’s most elite campuses and most selective.”

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Chief Justice John Roberts, another conservative, expressed doubt about whether the benefits of diversity can ever be properly measured. "What unique perspective does a minority student bring to physics class?" Roberts asked.

I am affirmative action. pic.twitter.com/xETO8JZSq2— the other one (@imfromraleigh) December 9, 201

At the public University of Texas at Austin most freshmen are admitted under a program guaranteeing places to the top 10 percent of high school graduating classes in the state. That program admits some minority students but not in sufficient numbers, according to the university, for the desired campus diversity.

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If the court's conservatives, who oppose the affirmative action program and are sympathetic to the white student Fisher, prevail, the Texas program and others like it across the nation could be in jeopardy. A ruling is due by the end of June.

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