June 29, 2023
This morning – the Supreme Court changed the game when it comes to whether or not your kid or – if you’re a senior in high school – if you get into college.
The six conservative Justices of the supreme court just gutted affirmative action programs as we know them at colleges and universities across the country. Saying the practice that’s been in place for about 40 years violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. But the ruling does not ban universities from hearing about the race of applicants when considering whether to admit them as students. I know that’s a little wonky…so here’s what it means.
In today’s ruling the Justices said colleges and universities cannot explicitly use race as a factor when determining whether a student is accepted. Like… applicants will no longer be allowed to check a box on their application indicating their race. But at the same time if applicants write about their race and how it’s impacted their lives in their admission’s essay, that can be considered.
In his majority opinion Chief Justice Roberts said — “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
But at the same time, Justice Roberts said — “the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
For about 40 years affirmative action practices have been used in admissions to colleges and universities with the goal of creating an ethnically diverse environment on campus. Advocates say affirmative action has helped boost admissions chances for some minorities who may not otherwise make the cut. Those who oppose it say the practice unlawfully discriminates against other groups.
The plaintiffs in these Supreme Court cases were challenging the affirmative action practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The plaintiffs in the Harvard case say the affirmative action policy has hurt the chances of Asian American applicants and plaintiffs in the UNC case say it discriminated against white and Asian applicants. The lower courts sided with Harvard and UNC saying affirmative action was the law of the land.
But in a 6 to 3 ruling in the UNC case and a 6 to 2 ruling in the Harvard case – Justice Jackson had to recuse herself because she sat on the Harvard board – the Justice said – yeah we know affirmative action has been the law of the land for decades and upheld many times by the supreme court since — but now we’re changing it.
Now — the dissent – was. Firey. Justice Sonya Sotomayor said this decision will roll back decades of precedent and momentous progress and wrote “this supposed recognition that universities can, in some situations, consider race in application essays is nothing but an attempt to put lipstick on a pig.” (pg 47 dissent)
In the dissent of the UNC case – Justice Jackson writes, “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” (pg 25 dissent)
So now what? Well, this decision will be used by colleges and universities across the country in their admissions process immediately. The question is – realistically – how will this ruling be integrated into a process that’s been in place for almost 40 years. What will the practical applications be? We’ll have to wait and see.
Read the Supreme Court opinion here.
