Supreme Court Should Take Up Challenge to UNC ’s Racial Preferences Alongside Harvard’s

Ilya Shapiro andGregory MillThe University of North Carolina (UNC) explicitly awards racial preferences to “underrepresented minorities” in the admissions process for its undergraduate students. This preference is not merely a small part of its decision making process. In many circumstances, UNC ’s admissions officers explicitly focus on racial classifications, treating an applicant’s race as a top ‐​line qualification alongside GPA and SAT scores.As a companion case to its challenge to Harvard ’s system of racial preferences—which on its face seems statistically more significant—a group called Students for Fair Admissions has petitioned the Supreme Court to review a district court ’s decision to uphold UNC’s admissions practices. Cato has filedanamicusbrief supporting this petition.We argue that the Court should hear the UNC case in conjunction with the Harvard case. Current doctrine holds Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to apply restrictions on private universities receiving federal funds equivalent to the protections of the Fourteenth Amendment ’s Equal Protection Clause, but it’s important that the Court specifically holdpublic institutions to the Constitution ’s prohibition on racial discrimination. Racial classifications by the government are particularly destructive, because they signify a polity ’s collective position. Moreover, evaluating the particulars of UNC’s practices will give the Court greater cont...

Source: Cato-at-liberty - December 15, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Ilya Shapiro, Gregory Mill Source Type: blogs