Affirmative Action in College Admissions

This article appeared onSubstack on May 30, 2023, and an earlier version appeared under Jacob Winter ’s byline in theHarvard Undergraduate Law Review.In a  few weeks, the Supreme Court will announce its decision in two cases it heard last fall, one against Harvard and the other against the University of North Carolina. Both suits challenge race‐​based affirmative action in college admissions. In each case, a group called Students for Fair Admiss ions (SFFA) argues that the universities’ admissions policies unlawfully discriminate against Asian Americans.The case against UNC rests on two issues. Under the Fourteenth Amendment ’s Equal Protection Clause, states may not “deny to any person within [their] jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” SFFA claims that universities are adoptingde facto quotas by prioritizing minority applicants over Asian Americans who have stronger academic records. Furthermore, under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, no university receiving federal funds or student aid may discriminate based on race, color, or national origin. The case against Harvard, a  private university, relies primarily on this second legal argument.Perhaps the most well ‐​known Supreme Court case addressing affirmative action isRegents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978). In the case, a  white applicant who was twice rejected from the UC Davis School of Medicine challenged the constitutionality of the school’s racial quotas in admi...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 30, 2023 Category: American Health Authors: Jeffrey Miron, Jacob Winter Source Type: blogs