Supreme Court guts affirmative action in college admissions

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 6/29/2023, 9:43 a.m.
The Supreme Court says colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting …
Colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, the Supreme Court says. Mandatory Credit: Mariam Zuhaib/AP

Originally Published: 29 JUN 23 10:12 ET

Updated: 29 JUN 23 10:23 ET

By Ariane de Vogue, CNN Supreme Court Reporter

(CNN) — The Supreme Court says colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, a landmark decision that overturns long-standing precedent that has benefited Black and Latino students in higher education.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the opinion for the conservative majority.

“The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause. Both programs 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. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today,” Roberts wrote.

The majority opinion claims that the court was not expressly overturning prior cases authorizing race-based affirmative action and suggested that how race has affected an applicant’s life can still be part of how their application is considered. But even if the court did not formally end race-based affirmative action in higher education, its analysis will make it practically impossible for colleges and universities to take race into account – as the three Democratic appointees stressed in dissent.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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