Supreme Court rejects affirmative action, limits race as factor in college admissions

The Supreme Court on Thursday found that affirmative action policies at a pair of universities violate the Fourteenth Amendment, prompting the nation’s highest court to restrict the use of race in the college admissions process.

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In a 6-3 decision, the court struck down policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that gave preference to some applicants based on their race.

“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,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court’s majority opinion. “This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”

The court noted that “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.”

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor called the court’s decision “indefensible,” saying it “subverts the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection.”

“Entrenched racial inequality remains a reality today,” the liberal justice wrote. “That is true for society writ large and, more specifically, for Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC), two institutions with a long history of racial exclusion. Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal.”

In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, the chancellor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Kevin Guskiewicz, said Thursday’s ruling was “not the outcome we hoped for.”

“Carolina remains firmly committed to bringing together talented students with different perspectives and life experiences and continues to make an affordable, high-quality education accessible to the people of North Carolina and beyond,” he said. He added that university officials “will carefully review the Supreme Court’s decision and take any steps necessary to comply with the law.”

Harvard officials said they “will certainly comply with the Court’s decision” in a letter posted online Thursday.

“For almost a decade, Harvard has vigorously defended an admissions system that, as two federal courts ruled, fully complied with longstanding precedent,” the letter read. “In the weeks and months ahead, drawing on the talent and expertise of our Harvard community, we will determine how to preserve, consistent with the Court’s new precedent, our essential values.”

At a news conference Thursday afternoon, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions — the nonprofit group that filed suit against the universities — said the Supreme Court’s decision “marks the beginning of the restoration of the colorblind legal covenant that binds together our multi-racial, multi-ethnic nation.”

“These discriminatory admissions practices undermined the integrity of our civil rights laws,” Edward Blum said. “Ending racial preferences in college admissions is an outcome that the vast majority of all Americans of all races will celebrate.”

Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and former Vice President Mike Pence, praised the Supreme Court’s decision.

Meanwhile Democrats, including President Joe Biden, former first lady Michelle Obama and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, denounced it.

Justices heard arguments over the long-standing policies at Harvard and UNC in October. Students for Fair Admissions sued both schools separately, accusing them of discriminating against Asian Americans with their affirmative action policies. The group also accused UNC of discriminating against white people.

The court has previously heard several challenges to racial preference in school admissions. Most recently, in 2016, it narrowly upheld a University of Texas program that considered race during the application process, according to The Associated Press.

>>What comes next for college admissions?

UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin M. Guskiewicz shared the following statement with ABC News in response to the Supreme Court's decision:

“Carolina remains firmly committed to bringing together talented students with different perspectives and life experiences and continues to make an affordable, high-quality education accessible to the people of North Carolina and beyond. While not the outcome we hoped for, we will carefully review the Supreme Court’s decision and take any steps necessary to comply with the law.”

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