Supreme Court outlaws affirmative action in college admissions

The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Thursday, ruling that both institutions were in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment and federal civil rights law.

The decision essentially ends the practice of overt racial consideration in higher education admissions and overturns for all intents and purposes the high court’s 2003 ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which found that colleges could consider race as one factor in the admissions process to achieve a diverse student body.

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “And the Equal Protection Clause, we have accordingly held, applies ‘without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality’—it is ‘universal in [its] application.’”

The Harvard and UNC programs had been first challenged in 2014 by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), a group founded by conservative activist Edward Blum. SFA had contended that colleges and universities can use other, race-neutral ways to assemble a diverse student body, including by focusing on socioeconomic status and eliminating the preference for children of alumni and major donors.

At Harvard, applicants are initially scrutinized by a “first reader,” who gives the prospective student a numerical score in six categories: academic, extracurricular, athletic, school support, personal, and “overall”, taking race into account for the final number. Admissions subcommittees who cover particular regions of the world make recommendations to the full 40-member admissions committee and consider race at that step of the process as well. The full committee also discusses the “relative breakdown of applicants by race” when deciding who to tentatively admit. 

During a final winnowing process, four factors are considered: “legacy status, recruited athlete status, financial aid eligibility, and race,” with the last factor being “‘a determinative tip for’” a significant percentage ‘of all admitted African American and Hispanic applicants,’” according to the court.

Supreme Court rules against Affirmative Action in higher education

What is affirmative action?

Affirmative action is the practice of favoring individuals belonging to groups subject to discrimination — including minorities — for employment and educational opportunities.

How is it used in college admissions?

In the 2003 Supreme Court case Grutter v. Bollinger, SCOTUS ruled colleges could consider race as a factor in the admissions process to assemble a more diverse student body.

What is happening now…

The Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina Thursday, ruling that both institutions were in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees “equal protection under the law” for all US citizens.

While colleges can consider an applicant’s “discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise … universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today,” Chief Justice John Roberts concluded in his opinion.

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At UNC, first readers are required to consider an applicant’s race as a factor in their review.

Blum and SFFA had argued that the process unfairly shut out qualified students — many of them white and Asian — on the basis of ethnicity.

The chief justice concluded his opinion by saying that while colleges can consider an applicant’s “discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise … universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”

“[T]he student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race,” Roberts went on. “Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

Roberts was joined in his opinion — which exempts America’s military academies — by all five of his colleagues on the court’s conservative wing: Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Justice Brett Kavanaugh and Justice Neil Gorsuch.

In his concurrence, Thomas wrote that “the Constitution continues to embody a simple truth: Two discriminatory wrongs cannot make a right.”

“[B]oth Harvard and UNC have a history of racial discrimination. But, neither have even attempted to explain how their current racially discriminatory programs are even remotely traceable to their past discriminatory conduct,” added Thomas, one of two black justices on the current court.

“Nor could they; the current race-conscious admissions programs take no account of ancestry and, at least for Harvard, likely have the effect of discriminating against some of the very same ethnic groups against which Harvard previously discriminated (i.e., Jews and those who are not part of the white elite),” he added. “All the while, Harvard and UNC ask us to blind ourselves to the burdens imposed on the millions of innocent applicants denied admission because of their membership in a currently disfavored race. The Constitution neither commands nor permits such a result.”

The court’s three liberals, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented in the UNC case, while Jackson — a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School as well as a former member of the university’s Board of Overseers, recused herself from the case involving the Ivy League school.

Jackson accused the majority of “let-them-eat-cake obliviousness” and announced ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. 

“But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” the newest justice added. “And having so detached itself from this country’s actual past and present experiences, the Court has now been lured into interfering with the crucial work that UNC and other institutions of higher learning are doing to solve America’s real-world problems. No one benefits from ignorance. Although formal race-linked legal barriers are gone, race still matters to the lived experiences of all Americans in innumerable ways, and today’s ruling makes things worse, not better.”

Thomas responded in his concurrence by accusing Jackson of depicting African-Americans as a “perpetual inferior caste. 

“Such a view is irrational; it is an insult to individual achievement and cancerous to young minds seeking to push through barriers, rather than consign themselves to permanent victimhood.”

Nine states already prohibit any consideration of race in admissions to their public colleges and universities: Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington state.

In another dissent, Sotomayor wrote that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress,” while President Biden said he “strongly, strongly” disagreed with the court.

“We cannot let this decision be the last word,” added Biden, who urged colleges and universities to continue to “take into account the adversity a student has overcome,” including “lack of financial means,” “where the student grew up and went to high school” and “particular hardships that each individual student has faced in life, including racial discrimination.”

Former President Donald Trump hailed what he called a “great day for America” in a post on his Truth Social network. 

“People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our Country, are finally being rewarded,” the 77-year-old said. “This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing. It will also keep us competitive with the rest of the world. Our greatest minds must be cherished and that’s what this wonderful day has brought. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!”

Former President Barack Obama said in a statement that affirmative action “allowed generations of students like Michelle and me to prove we belonged. Now it’s up to all of us to give young people the opportunities they deserve — and help students everywhere benefit from new perspectives.”