Supreme Court guts affirmative action, effectively ending race-conscious admissions
In a historic decision, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday effectively ended race-conscious admission programs at colleges and universities across the country. In a decision divided along ideological lines, the six-justice conservative supermajority invalidated admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
The decision reverses decades of precedent upheld over the years by narrow Supreme Court majorities that included Republican-appointed justices. It ends the ability of colleges and universities — public and private — to do what most say they still need to do: consider race as one of many factors in deciding which of the qualified applicants is to be admitted.
Chief Justice John Roberts, a longtime critic of affirmative action programs, wrote the decision for the court majority, saying that the nation’s colleges and universities must use colorblind criteria in admissions.
Majority opinion
“Many universities have for too long…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,” he wrote. “Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
Justice Clarence Thomas took the unusual step of reading from the bench parts of his lengthy concurring opinion.
Thursday’s decision, he wrote, “sees the universities’ admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences. … Those policies fly in the face of our colorblind Constitution.”
As he has done before, Thomas, the second black justice appointed to the court, reiterated his long-held view that affirmative action imposes a stigma on minorities. “While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination, I hold our enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles that … all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law.”
Roberts, for his part, pointed to the court’s 2003 decision reaffirming the constitutionality of affirmative action programs, noting that Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing for the court at the time, had suggested that there would have to be an end at some future point. That time has now come, Roberts said.
Opposing view
“It feels tragic,” said Columbia University President Bollinger, who has for 30 years been a leading proponent of affirmative action programs
“It feels like the country has been on a course of choosing between a continuation of the great era of civil rights, and another view of ‘We’ve done this long enough, and we need a whole new approach.’ It’s now the second choice.”
That sentiment echoed Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent.
“The Court subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society,” she wrote.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black female justice, also chimed in, saying: “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”
Door is left slightly open
The court did not entirely close the door to racial considerations in college admissions. As Roberts put it, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicants discussion of how race affected his or her life.” Nor did the court address the tactic of clustering minority students in classes.
Broader impact
Thursday’s decisions are likely to cause ripples throughout the country, and not just in higher education, but in selective primary and secondary schools like Boston Latin in Massachusetts, Thomas Jefferson high school in Virginia, and Bronx High School of Science in New York.
Ultimately, effects will be felt in every aspect of the nation’s economic, educational, and social life–from the Rooney rule that requires a minority applicant be considered in all NFL coach hiring decisions to employment and promotion decisions, DEI programs in schools and workplaces, and much more.
“We’re going to be fighting about this for the next 30 years,” said Harvard law professor Randall Kennedy.
