*On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in admissions decisions at public and private universities.
The opinion reversed longstanding precedent that allowed universities some leeway to consider an applicant’s race to balance student bodies better. The court’s conservative majority effectively overturned cases that lasted 45 years, invalidating admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively. Those schools will be forced to reshape their admissions practices, especially top schools that are more likely to consider applicants' race.
Besides the conservative-liberal split, the fight over affirmative action showed the deep gulf between the three nonwhite justices, each of whom wrote separately and vividly about race in America and where the decision might lead. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the decision “sees the universities’ admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court’s first Latina, wrote in dissent that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.” In a separate dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black female justice, called the decision “truly a tragedy for us all.”
