WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The United States Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action policies that allow for the limited use of race as a factor in college acceptance practices.
In one of the biggest reversals for the court since it overturned Roe v. Wade last year, colleges and universities will now be forced to change the way they admit students and find race-neutral alternatives to promote diversity in their institutions.
Writing for the court’s conservative majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said many universities have “for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin.”
“This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice,” Roberts wrote.
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said with this decision, the Supreme Court “stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”
“Entrenched racial inequality remains a reality today,” Sotomayor said. “That is true for society writ large and, more specifically, for Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC), two institutions with a long history of racial exclusion. Ignoring race will not equalize a society that is racially unequal. Despite the Court’s unjustified exercise of power, the opinion today will serve only to highlight the Court’s own impotence in the face of an America whose cries for equality resound. “
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the decision is “truly a tragedy for us all” in a separate dissent.
The court considered two separate cases on affirmative action, brought by Students for Fair Admission against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, which has argued the schools’ admission processes have discriminated against white and Asian American applicants.
Students for Fair Admissions was formed by conservative activist Edward Blum. He was also behind an earlier affirmative action challenge against the University of Texas, as well as the case that led the court in 2013 to end the use of a key provision in the landmark Voting Rights Act.
Blum formed Students for Fair Admissions, which filed lawsuits against both schools in 2014.
For the North Carolina case, the vote was 6-3 in the North Carolina case. It was 6-2 in the Harvard case, as Jackson sat it out because she had been a member of an advisory governing board at the university.
In the 1960s and 1970s, many colleges developed affirmative action plans to address the fact that many predominantly white schools struggled to attract people from historically disadvantaged and underrepresented communities. Policies were also created to promote greater inclusion of women.
Since the late 1970s, the Supreme Court has three times upheld affirmative action in college admissions on grounds that institutions have a compelling interest to address past discrimination that shut nonwhite students out of higher learning. Justices have also agreed with arguments that more diverse student bodies promoted cross-racial understanding.
In a study cited by Harvard University in the Supreme Court case, around 40% of U.S. colleges take race into account during admissions.
During oral arguments, supporters of maintaining the status quo argued that affirmative action helps lead to a diverse student body, while the advocates brought up concerns about classifying applicants by their race.
Most Americans don’t think race should be a factor in college admissions or employment decisions, even as they voice support for affirmative action in general, recent polls show.
An NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found most people (57%) think “affirmative action programs in hiring, promoting and college admissions” should be continued.
Those findings align with a 2021 Gallup survey that showed 62% of people “favor affirmative action programs for racial minorities.”
Attitudes on the topic also vary by race and ethnicity.
A majority of white (57%) and Asian (52%) adults disapprove of “selective colleges and universities” taking race and ethnicity into account in admissions decisions, a 2023 Pew survey found.
Whereas, Black adults were more in favor — with 47% approving and 29% disapproving — of race being a factor. Hispanics were evenly split on the question.
Congressional Black Caucus members issued a statement saying that by making the “radical” move to restrict affirmative action, the Supreme Court has thrown its legitimacy into question.
The NAACP echoed these sentiments, saying the court bowed to the “personally held beliefs of an extremist minority.”
“We will not allow hate-inspired people in power to turn back the clock and undermine our hard-won victories,” The tricks of America’s dark past will not be tolerated,” the NAACP said. “Race plays an undeniable role in shaping the identities of and quality of life for Black Americans. In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court has displayed a willful ignorance of our reality.”
In his own statement, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said the consequences of the Supreme Court ruling “will be felt immediately and across the country.”
“Students of color will face an admission cycle next year with fewer opportunities to attend the same colleges and universities than their parents and older siblings,” Schumer wrote. “These negative consequences could continue for generations, as the historic harms of exclusion and discrimination in education and society are exacerbated.The Court’s misguided decision reminds us how far we still have to go to ensure that all Americans are treated equally.”
But some lawmakers, like Republican North Carolina Rep. Virginia Foxx, lauded the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
“Academia’s ivory towers should not divide and promote preferences based on the color of one’s skin,” Foxx wrote.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said the Court “reaffirmed that commonsense position, students can get a fair shot at college and the American dream on their merits.”
NewsNation reporter Andrew Dorn, correspondent Tom Dempsey and The Associated Press contributed to this report.