The Supreme Court of the United States decided on Thursday (29) that the racial quota admission policies of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violate the U.S. Constitution. The decision ends the use of racial quotas in higher education admissions nationwide.
The vote, 6-3, followed ideological lines, with the three liberal justices dissenting from the majority. The court’s president, John Roberts, authored the majority opinion and was joined by justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett. Sotomayor authored the dissenting opinion.
“Harvard’s and UNC’s admission programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” Roberts wrote. “Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives that justify the use of race; they inevitably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotypes, and lack meaningful endpoints. We have never allowed admission programs to operate in this way, and we will not do so today.”
But Roberts wrote that universities may still consider “a candidate’s arguments about how race has affected their life, whether through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
On the other hand, liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the Court’s decision will result in a less equitable educational system in the U.S.
“Ignoring race will not equalize a racially unequal society. What was true in the 1860s and again in 1954 is true today: equality requires acknowledgment of inequality,” Sotomayor wrote.
The decision “cements a superficial colorblind rule as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter,” the justice wrote.
The unfavorable decision regarding the use of quotas is just the latest in which the conservative majority of the Supreme Court reverses issues that have shaped American life for decades. A year ago, the Court voted to limit access to abortion, a right that was guaranteed by the landmark 1973 decision “Roe v. Wade.” These measures highlight the impact that the three conservative justices appointed by former President Donald Trump have had on the Court and will eventually have on American society for years to come.
Universities have warned that the end of racial quotas could lead to a significant drop in the representation of Black and Hispanic students, particularly in elite institutions.
More than 40% of universities and 60% of selective schools consider race in admission decisions. Additionally, vocational institutions, the U.S. armed forces, and the federal government also recognize that the educational benefits of diversity justify the limited consideration of race in admissions.
The Court’s decision does not apply to the Armed Forces
The Supreme Court president, John Roberts, explicitly exempts military academies from this prohibition on using racial quotas for admission: “in light of the potentially distinct interests” they may present.
There was a discussion about whether the military would need to maintain racial quotas for training its future officer corps based on the judgment that it would be detrimental to military discipline and cohesion if the leadership cadre did not reflect the diversity of the ground troops, who make up the majority of the group that fights and dies in wars.
In higher education, this diversity does not seem to be significant for most justices.