The United States Supreme Court will be hearing oral arguments Monday in two cases that might end the use of racial advantages in college admissions, focused on arguments to affirmative action initiatives at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
The complainant in both lawsuits is a non-profit organization called Students for Fair Admission (SFFA), which claims that affirmative action rules discriminate toward Asian Americans, who would otherwise make up a bigger part of the student body at both universities.
In Regents of the State University of CA v. Bakke (1978), the Court allowed affirmative action in university admissions to promote diversity as long as it did not function as a quota system. That holding was eventually restricted by two judgments against the University of MI in 2003: Gratz overturned an undergrad policy that awarded points based on race, and Grutter maintained a law school policy that examined race but did not provide points to applicants.
The cases are being tried concurrently, despite the fact that one is against Harvard which is a private school and the other is against the University of North Carolina which is a public school. The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment only applies to private organizations that accept federal funds. The prosecution against Harvard is focused on civil rights statutes, whereas the case against the University of North Carolina is broader in scope.
Harvard has triumphed in both the district and appellate courts, but the case has called into question its affirmative action policies, exposing that the real number of Asian American students accepted is roughly half of what it would be based solely on test scores and grades. It was discovered that Harvard used a “personality” exam that placed Asian American groups below others. The University of North Carolina prevailed in district court, and the case was taken directly to the Supreme Court to be heard alongside the Harvard case.
Since she serves as a member of Harvard’s Board of Overseers, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson has exempted herself from the Harvard case.
The lawsuits are Students for Fair Admission v. President and Fellow members of Harvard University, No. 20-1199, and Students for Fair Admission v. the University of North Carolina, No. 21-707.