WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥� The on Thursday struck down in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
The court鈥檚 conservative majority effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years in invalidating admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation鈥檚 oldest private and public colleges, respectively.
The decision, like last year鈥檚 momentous abortion ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, marked the realization of a long-sought conservative legal goal, this time finding that race-conscious admissions plans violate the Constitution and a law that applies to colleges that receive federal funding, as almost all do.
Those schools will be forced to reshape their admissions practices, especially top schools that are more likely to consider the race of applicants.
Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have 鈥渃oncluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual鈥檚 identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.鈥�
From the White House, President Joe Biden said he 鈥渟trongly, strongly鈥� disagreed with the court鈥檚 ruling and urged colleges to seek other routes to diversity rather than let the ruling 鈥渂e the last word.鈥�
Besides the conservative-liberal split, the fight over affirmative action showed the deep gulf between the , each of whom wrote separately and vividly about race in America and where the decision might lead.
Justice Clarence Thomas 鈥� the nation's second Black justice, who had long called for an end to affirmative action 鈥� wrote that the decision 鈥渟ees the universities鈥� admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes.鈥�
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Latina, wrote in dissent that the decision 鈥渞olls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.鈥�
Both Thomas and Sotomayor, the two justices who have acknowledged affirmative action played a role in their admissions to college and law school, took the unusual step of reading summaries of their opinions aloud in the courtroom.
In a separate dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson 鈥� the court鈥檚 first Black female justice 鈥� called the decision 鈥渢ruly a tragedy for us all.鈥�
Jackson, who sat out the Harvard case because she had been a member of an advisory governing board, wrote, 鈥淲ith let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 鈥榗olorblindness for all鈥� by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.鈥�
The vote was 6-3 in the North Carolina case and 6-2 in the Harvard case. Justice Elena Kagan was the other dissenter.
Biden, who quickly stepped before cameras at the White House, said of the nation's colleges: 鈥淭hey should not abandon their commitment to ensure student bodies of diverse backgrounds and experience that reflect all of America,鈥� He said colleges should evaluate 鈥渁dversity overcome鈥� by candidates.
In fact, an applicant for admission still can write about, and colleges can consider, 鈥渉ow race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise,鈥� Roberts wrote.
But the institutions 鈥渕ay not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today,鈥� he wrote.
Presidents of many colleges quickly issued statements affirming their commitment to diversity regardless of the court鈥檚 decision. Many said they were still assessing the impact but would follow federal law.
鈥淗arvard will continue to be a vibrant community whose members come from all walks of life, all over the world,鈥� school President Lawrence Bacow said in a statement.
President Reginald DesRoches of Rice University in Houston said he was 鈥済reatly disappointed鈥� by the decision but 鈥渕ore resolute than ever鈥� to pursue diversity. 鈥淭he law may change, but Rice鈥檚 commitment to diversity will not,鈥� he said in a campus message.
Former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama offered starkly different takes on the high court ruling. The decision marked 鈥渁 great day for America. People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our Country, are finally being rewarded," Trump, the current Republican presidential frontrunner, wrote on his social media network.
Obama said in a statement that affirmative action 鈥渁llowed generations of students like Michelle and me to prove we belonged. Now it鈥檚 up to all of us to give young people the opportunities they deserve鈥娾�斺�奱nd help students everywhere benefit from new perspectives.鈥�
The Supreme Court had twice upheld in the past 20 years, including as recently as 2016.
But that was before the three Trump appointees joined the court. , all six conservative justices expressed doubts about the practice, which had been upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978.
Lower courts also had upheld the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian American applicants.
The college admissions disputes were among several high-profile cases focused on race in America, and were weighed by the conservative-dominated, but most diverse court ever. Among the nine justices are four women, two Black people and a Latina.
The justices earlier in June decided in Alabama and .
The affirmative action cases were brought by conservative activist Edward Blum, who also was behind an earlier challenge against the University of Texas as well as the case that led the court in 2013 to end use of a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act.
Blum formed Students for Fair Admissions, which filed the lawsuits against both schools in 2014.
The group argued that the Constitution forbids the use of race in college admissions and called for overturning earlier Supreme Court decisions that said otherwise.
Roberts' opinion effectively did so, both Thomas and the dissenters wrote.
The only institutions of higher education explicitly left out of the ruling were the nation's military academies, Roberts wrote, suggesting that national security interests could affect the legal analysis.
Blum鈥檚 group had contended that colleges and universities can use other, race-neutral ways to assemble a diverse student body, including by focusing on socioeconomic status and eliminating the preference for children of alumni and major donors.
The schools said that they use race in a limited way, but that eliminating it as a factor altogether would make it much harder to achieve a student body that looks like America.
At the eight Ivy League universities, the number of nonwhite students increased from 27% in 2010 to 35% in 2021, according to federal data. Those men and women include Asian, Black, Hispanic, Native American, Pacific Islander and biracial students.
Nine states already prohibit any consideration of race in admissions to their public colleges and universities. The end of affirmative action in higher education in California, Michigan, Washington state and elsewhere led to .
The other states are: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma.
In 2020, California voters easily rejected a ballot measure to bring back affirmative action.
A poll last month by showed 63% of U.S. adults say the court should allow colleges to consider race as part of the admissions process, yet few believe students鈥� race should ultimately play a major role in decisions. A Pew Research Center survey released last week found that half of Americans disapprove of considerations of applicants鈥� race, while a third approve.
The chief justice and Jackson received their undergraduate and law degrees from Harvard. Two other justices, Neil Gorsuch and Kagan, went to law school there, and Kagan was the first woman to serve as the law school鈥檚 dean.
Every U.S. college and university the justices attended, save one, urged the court to preserve race-conscious admissions.
Those schools 鈥� Yale, Princeton, Columbia, Notre Dame and Holy Cross 鈥� joined briefs in defense of Harvard鈥檚 and UNC鈥檚 admissions plans.
Only Justice Amy Coney Barrett鈥檚 undergraduate alma mater, Rhodes College, in Memphis, Tennessee, was not involved in the cases.
___
Associated Press writer Collin Binkley contributed to this report.
Mark Sherman, The Associated Press
