LWVTX Blog

The United Supreme Court ruled that current admissions policies which considered race as a factor violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. While focused specifically on admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, the decision will impact institutions of higher learning across the country including here in Texas. Finding that Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions program lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race is a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping and lack meaningful end points, the Court ruled 6-3 that these and similar programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.

The majority opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts left open the possibility that universities could consider the impact of race on applicants on a case-by-case basis so long as that impact is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the applicant can contribute to the university. (Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College, Syllabus). Given the volume of applications received each year by colleges and universities, it appears that this ruling eliminates race- sensitive admissions policies for all practical purposes.

The dissenting Justices noted that the majority opinion upends decades of settled precedent without any “attempt to make the extraordinary showing required” for such action. Justice Sonya Sotomayor read her dissent from the bench saying that the holding “cements a superficial rule of color-blindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter.”

An analysis and link to the opinion can be found here.