On June 29, 2023, the US Supreme Court held in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College (decided with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, et al.) that race may not be used as a factor in college admissions. Although the case related solely to higher education, employers should remain alert to the ripple effect that the ruling could have on employment law.
In 2014, an organization opposing affirmative action, Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, alleging that both improperly used race as a factor in their admissions processes. Specifically, SFFA claimed that Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by favoring Hispanic and Black applicants, thereby discriminating against Asian Americans in admissions. The SFFA similarly claimed that UNC violated Title VI by discriminating against white and Asian American students and, as a public institution, violated the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution.
Both universities use race and ethnicity as one of many factors in their admissions processes. The universities argued that because race is just one of many “plus” factors in a comprehensive process, their affirmative action programs tracked the Supreme Court’s 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision. In Grutter, the Supreme Court held that race may be used as one of many factors in college admissions because of the educational benefits...
NPR and NewsGuard tested six chatbots and four search engines with 30 questions built on false claims spread by Russia, China and Iran. The chatbots debunked the claims on average about three tim...