The current Supreme Court has been inconsistent with public opinion in some of its most famous rulings, including abortion and environmentalism. Yesterday’s ruling restricting affirmative action based on race at colleges and universities was different.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court’s six conservative judges declared it unconstitutional for universities to use race as a factor in admissions. They cite the Fourteenth Amendment, which prohibits discrimination based on race.
Their verdict seems to be in line with public opinion. Most Americans oppose considering race or ethnicity in college admissions, survey found. Even in liberal California, the public voted twice to ban affirmative action. (American opinion may change It depends partly on how the survey question is asked.)
Public opinion could make it difficult for Democrats to rally Americans to support affirmative action as they have done with abortion rights since the court overturned Roe v. Wade last year. However, Democrats were quick to condemn the affirmative action ruling. “We cannot let this decision be final,” President Biden said yesterday.
Regardless of the political outcome, this decision has upset decades of legislation and the higher education landscape. The ruling will change the structure of many of America’s top universities — and the prospects for students who want to attend them.
decision
The decision to settle cases involves Harvard and the University of North Carolina. Both schools said they consider race in admissions to diversify their student bodies, particularly by promoting Black and Latino applicants who may be disadvantaged by discrimination. race. But critics say Black and Latino students are helped to the detriment of students of an already more underrepresented race or ethnicity on campus, especially Asian Americans.
Writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts sided with critics of the policy. He claimed that the affirmative action was racist and unconstitutional. “Eliminating racism means eliminating all,” he wrote.
The ruling does not ban all mentions of race in college applications. For example, prospective students might write in application essays about how race has affected their lives. But Roberts cautioned that schools still cannot use race to determine admissions even when considering those essays. Instead, mentioning race can only demonstrate an applicant’s personal achievements or virtues.
“For example, a benefit to a student who has overcome racism must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” writes Roberts. “In other words, students should be treated based on their experience as an individual — not on the basis of race.”
The three court libertarians disagree. Judge Sonia Sotomayor summed up her dissent from the bench, a rare move that signaled deep dissent. “Today, this Court is hindering and pushing back decades of important and precedent progress,” she wrote.
She added that the ruling “reinforces a superficial rule of color blindness as a constitutional principle in a racist society where race has always been and continues to matter.”
Whether a judge considers affirmative action positive or negative seems to depend on whether they primarily see it as holding back or pulling prospective students up. Majority and concurrence focus on the disadvantages of affirmative action for white and Asian students, while dissenters focus on the benefits for black students and Latinos. Disagreement results in someone believing more important.
What is next
Several states have banned affirmative action based on race, offering real-life examples of what could happen. My colleague, Stephanie Saul, who is in charge of education, said: Written. The same can happen at Harvard, North Carolina and other universities.
But one major university system, the University of California, adopted policies that helped increase the number of Black and Hispanic students after the state ended affirmative action. California’s experience shows that schools can, if they are willing, take steps to improve diversity even without explicitly considering race.
For most college students, the ruling will have limited direct impact. Few universities outside of elite institutions have an affirmative action policy; they accept the majority of applications.
But the overall structure of the higher education landscape underestimated the impact of the ruling. Elite colleges have a disproportionate impact on American society. Consider that eight of the nine judges who voted for the ruling yesterday went to Ivy League schools. And two people, Sotomayor and Clarence Thomas, have said they benefit from affirmative action. Now, they help decide the law of the land.
More information about the ruling
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