The Supreme Court handed down a definitive ruling against the use of racial preferences in college admissions, declaring in a 6-3 decision on Thursday: “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.”
The syllabus opinion in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College notes that any exceptions to that principle — based on the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — “must survive a daunting two-step examination known as “strict scrutiny.” Unless the discrimination is for a “compelling” government interest, and is “necessary” to achieve it, it is unconstitutional.
Reviewing the history of precedents on racial preferences, which allowed the limited use of affirmative action in college admissions, the syllabus notes that “the Court has permitted race-based college admissions only within the confines of narrow restrictions: such admissions programs must comply with strict scrutiny, may never use race as a stereotype or negative, and must—at some point—end.”
