Bigot Alert

“If racial discrimination in the interest of diversity does not violate public policy, then surely discrimination in the practices of religion is no violation.”

In his 1981 friend-of-the-court filing with the Supreme Court, Lott cited court rulings upholding affirmative action programs at colleges and compared them to the dating ban between black and white students at Bob Jones University.

Now Lott is battling to quell criticisms over remarks he made at a birthday party last week for 100-year-old Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-South Carolina. Lott had suggested the country would have been better off if Thurmond, running for president on a pro-segregationist ticket in 1948, had won.