Supreme Court ends affirmative action in university admissions

In two related cases—Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina—the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that using race as a factor in university admissions violates both the 14th Amendment of the Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. At the root of the Court’s decision is a profound questioning of whether “diversity” and all its related attributes provide a sufficient basis to overcome the legal hurdle of using racial preferences.

Opinion

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion for Harvard but addressed the constitutional issues underlying both cases. It’s a withering rejection of the Court’s prior affirmative action rulings.

Noting first that the admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina overtly circumvent the constitutional requirement of “equal protection,” the opinion made clear that—despite five prior holdings to the contrary—those programs didn’t present a narrowly tailored, compelling governmental interest that would permit an exception to the constitutional prohibition on using racial preferences.