One of the things that defines the American people is our passionate belief in fair play. No one should start out with inherent advantages, right? We should all be judged by the “content of our character” and based on our abilities, and let the chips fall where they may.

That’s why our laws against workplace discrimination were drafted in the first place. We were trying to ensure that every candidate for every position would be assessed as an individual, not based on their demographic profile.

Needless to say, the recent decision of the Biden administration to reserve a specific (and imminent) opening on the Supreme Court for a black female is un-American and — let’s just say it — illegal and illegitimate. Let’s explore the ramifications of that startling revelation.

First, I note with sadness (and more than a little disdain) that Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina disagrees with my premise. He doesn’t regard a process that excludes anyone who isn’t black and female as discriminatory, or even as “affirmative action.”

Oh, no, he says, it’s merely a noble effort to make the Supreme Court “look like America.” How nice. I mean, why not have President Joe Biden’s favorite black female judge dress up like the Statue of Liberty? Then she’d look even more “like America.”

Graham prefers, incidentally, that the next justice be a fellow South Carolinian. As long as that’s the case, he’s fully satisfied. Ugh! It’s one thing to be a RINO, and it’s another be a first-class idiot. I, for one, just lost a lot of respect for Lindsey Graham.

But let’s start with the obvious: disqualifying people from consideration for a job — any job — because of their race or gender is discrimination. It’s the very definition of discrimination. It’s discrimination in its rawest and purest form. Doing it covertly is bad enough, but doing it overtly, as the Biden administration is in this case, is especially egregious. Even a majority of Democrats concede that this approach is wrong.

When one makes hiring bias this obvious, however, one also makes unlawful discrimination — for once — easy to spot, and when it’s easy to spot, it ought to be easy to … stop. So let’s consider that: is there anything that can be done about Biden’s cavalier disregard for the principle of fair play, his blatant violation of employment discrimination laws, and his unconscionable race-baiting?

Perhaps! It’s time to start asking some hard questions, such as: could a federal court issue an injunction against a judicial selection process that has been publicly announced to be discriminatory? Could Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee protest Biden’s obvious and shameful bias by refusing to make a quorum and report the nomination out of committee to the whole Senate? (Presumably not, with Lindsey Graham around.)

Could the confirmation of a black female nominee be invalidated by the courts, or by the Supreme Court, after the fact, because of the flawed and illegal method of selection? Could SCOTUS simply refuse to seat whoever is nominated and confirmed, because the process was illegitimate, illegal and arguably unconstitutional?

Could Biden be impeached, after January 2023, by a Republican House of Representatives, for his self-admitted contempt for and violation of non-discrimination laws? Could a non-black and/or non-female candidate for nomination to SCOTUS sue the Biden administration, after the fact, based on the (illegal) exclusion from consideration, and if so could a judgment in their favor yield monetary damages, the incarceration of the guilty parties, or even a reversal, by the courts or by the Supreme Court, of the original confirmation?

Could litigation of any of these matters delay the Senate’s consideration of a Biden nominee until after January 2023, when Republicans might find themselves in the majority in the Senate, and thus able to block Biden’s illegitimate pick?

These are all questions that we should be asking, and asking pointedly and urgently, lest the Biden administration succeed in its malign efforts to balkanize the Supreme Court of the United States and turn it into a plaything of leftist ideologues and identity politics extremists.

Normally, Democrats themselves are the loudest proponents of non-discrimination laws and of the criminalization of racial and gender bias. In this case, they appear to feel entitled to practice both.

Let’s show them that they’re wrong.

(Dr. Nicholas L. Waddy is an associate professor of history at SUNY Alfred.)