This halts admission plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, forcing institutions to explore new ways to achieve diversity of students
Our Bureau
Washington
The US Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, forcing institutions of higher education to explore new ways to achieve student bodies of diverse nature.
The admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively have been overturned by the court’s conservative majority, despite the Lower courts upholding the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian-American applicants.
Chief Justice John Roberts said that for too long universities have “concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented and wrote that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black female justice, termed the decision “truly a tragedy for us all,” in a separate dissent.
In the past 20 years, Supreme Court had twice allowed race-conscious college admissions programs, including as recently as 2016. But that was before the 3 appointees of former President Donald Trump joined the court.
In a late October hearing, all 6 conservative justices expressed apprehension about the practice, which had been upheld under Supreme Court decisions dating back to 1978.
