The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the use of race as a factor in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina was unconstitutional, departing from a nearly half-century of guidance on affirmative action and erecting new hurdles for underrepresented students of color and efforts by schools to ensure diversity in their classrooms.
The court, in a 6-3 decision that was among the most widely anticipated of the concluding term, ruled the schools’ admission programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Court precedent from 1978, eroded in subsequent decisions, allowed race to be considered in higher education under narrow circumstances.
“The Supreme Court has yet again taken us back in time by barring institutions of higher education from using race-conscious admissions policies,” Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a New York Democrat, said in a statement shortly after the ruling. “These policies are critical to ensuring that our Black and brown students, who have already experienced redlining and systemic underinvestment in their schools and communities, have an equitable shot at higher education to pursue their dreams.”
But Yiatin Chu, a New York City public school parent and co-founder of the advocacy group Asian Wave Alliance, cheered the ruling.
“The United States is a country of limitless opportunities and equal protection, and treating students equally regardless of race is a fundamental right that the court has now returned to us,” Chu said in a statement. “Students should be evaluated on their talents, accomplishments and potential, not penalized for a checkbox on race in their college applications.”
The ruling means diversity-minded private and public schools will be pressed into relying on race-neutral criteria like income and geography to continue offering opportunity to underrepresented students of color who are deemed worthy of admission but who underachieve on such measures as the SAT.
The decision will most certainly also…
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