Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling
The US Supreme Court is seen in Washington, DC, on June 26, 2023. (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The Supreme Court has issued its ruling regarding affirmative action on Thursday, saying that colleges and universities can no longer use race as a factor in college admissions.
While many colleges and universities have argued that affirmative action keeps the student bodies on their campuses diverse, the Supreme Court has ruled, 6-3, that taking race into consideration is a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection clause.
By a vote of 6-3, the Supreme Court just ruled that university admissions programs that use affirmative action and other race-based admissions criteria are unconstitutional and violate the 14th Amendment. Roberts wrote the opinion.
Many have long argued against the long-standing policy at the universities discriminates against qualified students based on race. Students for Fair Admissions, a student activist group, took up the issue and sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
They argued that the practices violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act that “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal finances assistance.”
Courts on the federal level had sided with the two schools against the students who brought the lawsuit, however the Supreme Court took up the case and have now ruled in favor of the group, ruling that affirmative action policies are discriminatory.
In the opinion, written by Chief Justice john Roberts, the Supreme Court said that the systems that are in place at the universities “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.”
Justice Clarence Thomas said that affirmative action policies are “rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes.”
“While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination,” he wrote. “I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: that all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law.”
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) supported the ruling saying that the admissions process will be “fairer and uphold equality under the law.”
The Supreme Court just ruled that no American should be denied educational opportunities because of race.
Now students will be able to compete based on equal standards and individual merit. This will make the college admissions process fairer and uphold equality under the law.
“Now students will be able to compete based on equal standards and individual merit. This will make the college admissions process fairer and uphold equality under the law,” he tweeted.
Justice Kentaji Brown slammed the decision by the Court and accused the Justices of being ignorant.
“But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” she said. “No one benefits from ignorance.”
The NAACP has also slammed the decision and said that they had “bowed to the personally held beliefs of an extremist minority,” and the organization said that they plan to hold a rally at noon today at the steps of the Supreme Court.
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