The Aftermath of the Supreme Court Ruling Outlawing Race-Sensitive Admissions

On June 29, 2023, the United States Supreme Court ruled in  6-3 decision that colleges and universities can no longer use race as a specific basis for granting admission. Doing so would, according to the Court, be a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The ruling was in cases brought against the University of North Carolina and Harvard University. The Court stated that the admissions programs at the universities discriminated against White and Asian American applicants by using race-conscious admissions policies. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it. The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite.” This class entering college this fall is the first since the Supreme Court’s ruling. As expected the percentage of Black students at many of the nation’s highest-rated colleges and universities declined. Some of these declines were large. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Black are 5 percent of the first year class, down from nearly 15 percent the year before. At Brown University...