Holding that race cannot be considered while granting college admissions to students, the Supreme Court of the United States of America declared as unconstitutional the race-conscious admission policies at the Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, which were being followed as an affirmative action to ensure representation for marginalised and under-represented groups.
The decision was 6:3 against University of North Carolina and 6:2 against Harvard University, with the liberal judges penning a forceful dissent. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson recused from hearing the case related to Harvard University.
The ruling came in an appeal filed by a group named ‘Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA)’, who argued that race-based admission program violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution. Agreeing with the SFAA, the majority held that the impugned admission policies amounted to race-based discrimination.
“Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions 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, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause”, the majority held. At the same time, it clarified that “nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university”.