Held: Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.
At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.
Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.
Reporting:
Supreme Court Bans Race-Conscious Admissions (Harvard Magazine, 6/29/23)
Affirmative Action Falls (Harvard Crimson 6/29/23)
Supreme Court Strikes Down Race-Based Admissions at Harvard and U.N.C. (NYT, 6/29/23)
Supreme Court restricts affirmative action in college admissions (Washington Post, 6/29/23)
Supreme Court Strikes Down Affirmative Action in College Admissions (WSJ, 6/29/23)
