Supreme Court will hear university affirmative action cases

On January 24, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that are expected to end the use of race in university admissions. The two cases, Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. the University of North Carolina, seek to overturn the Court’s decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, which allowed colleges to consider race as a factor in admissions.

While the Court’s decision is unlikely to be issued before next summer, employers and universities need to consider how the decision might affect their affirmative action and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) programs.

Affirmative action in university admission

In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld universities’ ability to use race as a factor in ensuring a diverse student body in Grutter v. Michigan. The Court reaffirmed that decision in 2016, saying it was permissible to consider race as a factor to achieve education diversity. In 2014, the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) sued both Harvard, a prestigious private university, and the University of North Carolina (UNC), a prestigious public university, alleging Harvard penalized Asian Americans and UNC penalized whites by giving preferences to black and Hispanic students. The lower courts upheld both colleges’ admissions processes, saying their limited use of race in admissions was consistent with the Supreme Court’s precedent.