On June 29, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in two cases challenging universities’ consideration of race as a factor in student admissions: Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College; and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. By a 6-3 vote, the Court determined that the admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violated the Fourteenth Amendment by giving weight to students’ race.
The decision will affect admissions policies at higher education institutions across the country, both public and private. Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion for the majority, stressing the need for colleges and universities to use race-neutral criteria to make admissions decisions. And while the majority’s opinion was expressly limited to the university setting, the decision also has potential implications for private entities in a landscape where diversity and equity have become a cultural focus.
In this Update, we build on our prior Update by explaining the decision and answering some of the pressing questions that it raises moving forward.
What aspects of Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions policies did the Court take issue with?
In its decision, the Court found that UNC’s use of race as a factor in its admissions policies violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, and Harvard similarly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. (The Court has long interpreted...
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