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The U.S. Supreme Court introduced it will pay attention certainly one of two circumstances on October 31 that might dismantle the 40-year precedent of race-based affirmative motion in college admissions, with universities now urging the Court to maintain the verdict in spite of some knowledgeable opinion on the contrary.
Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College is certainly one of two circumstances to come back earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court urging the Court to do away with race as an admissions issue and, consequently, overturn the precedent case, Grutter v. Bollinger. The case additionally seeks to reply to whether or not Harvard College violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act via its alleged discrimination towards Asian-American scholars, stemming from the preliminary lawsuit.
“It’s very clear to me that Harvard University was engaging in blatant discrimination. And what they were doing was they did not like the fact that Asian-Americans – if they were simply admitted based on their credentials, qualifications – would have such a huge percentage of the student body,” Hans von Spakovsky, a senior criminal fellow on the Heritage Foundation, informed Fox News Digital.
The SFFA first of all sued Harvard College in 2014 for violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which “prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance.” Despite decrease court docket rulings siding with SFFA, a Boston district court docket dominated in Harvard’s prefer in 2019, declaring that the proof towards Harvard used to be inconclusive and “the observed discrimination” affected just a small pool of Asian-American scholars. It dominated that SFFA didn’t have status within the case.
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SFFA appealed the case to the First Circuit Court of Appeals, the place the court docket dominated in prefer of Harvard as soon as once more. The circuit court docket dominated that the SFFA did have status however that Harvard’s admissions program glad strict scrutiny “because it does not penalize Asian Americans, engage in racial balancing, overuse race, or neglect race-neutral alternatives.”
“Harvard and the University of North Carolina have racially gerrymandered their freshman classes in order to achieve prescribed racial quotas. Every college applicant should be judged as a unique individual, not as some representative of a racial or ethnic group,” SFFA President Edward Blum mentioned in a commentary.
However, some professionals and the writ of certiorari filed by means of SFFA argue that Harvard’s discrimination stems from the college’s preliminary admittance of Jewish scholars within the early Nineteen Twenties.
UNITED STATES – SEPTEMBER 03: Harvard banners grasp outdoor Memorial Church at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S., on Friday, Sept. 4, 2009.
((Photo by means of Michael Fein/Bloomberg by the use of Getty Images))
“Harvard thus created a holistic admissions system to ‘reduce the number of Jews.’ Instead of test scores alone, Harvard placed ‘greater emphasis’ on ‘character,’ ‘fitness,’ and other subjective criteria,” the court docket record learn.
Von Spakovsky mentioned Harvard is now enforcing that very same “Harvard Plan” within the college’s admittance of Asian-American scholars.
“Asian-American students with high grades, high test scores, lots of extracurricular activities were all consistently being rated by admissions officers as having not good characters, not having the fitness needed for a Harvard student. So they were using that kind of subjective evaluation to lower their admissions policy. I can’t think of anything more racist than that,” von Spakovsky mentioned.
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SFFA is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the precedent case, Grutter v. Bollinger, and do away with race-based affirmative motion in admissions totally. The 2003 case sought to reply to whether or not racial personal tastes in pupil admissions violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
In 2003, the Court in the long run dominated that using race as an admissions issue used to be now not unconstitutional so long as it used to be narrowly adapted to additional the compelling pursuits of acquiring the learning advantages to be had in a various pupil frame.
“I think the Court has gotten it exactly right for the last 45 years,” Erwin Chemerinsky, Dean of the UC Berkeley School of Law, informed Fox News Digital. “Colleges and universities have a compelling interest in having a diverse student body and should be able to use race as one factor among many in admissions decisions.”
Overturning Grutter “would be the most dramatic, most far-reaching decision the Court could arrive at,” Rachel Moran, Professor of Law at UCI Law, informed Fox News Digital. “So, under that approach, the Court would say that they don’t believe that under the First Amendment, academic freedom has any special stature. And because diversity is an expression of the college or university’s freedom to compose its student body, that doesn’t carry any special weight.”
However, von Spakovsky mentioned that the Grutter determination used to be made with the hopes it will be a brief repair, in line with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.
“What she said back then was, ‘Hopefully 25 years from now, this will no longer be necessary, even allowing limited racial preferences.’ Well, we’re two decades later. And it’s time to end it,” mentioned von Spakovsky.

Harvard’s seal sits atop a gate to the athletic fields at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts Sept. 21, 2009.
(REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Harvard University has maintained that it has now not discriminated in its admissions procedure in anyway, arguing that SFFA did not end up its argument in line with decrease court docket rulings. Harvard states in its opposition submitting to SFFA’s writ of certiorari that “the educational benefits of a diverse student body is a compelling interest,” in line with rulings equivalent to Grutter.
“Considering race as one factor among many in admissions decisions produces a more diverse student body which strengthens the learning environment for all. The US Solicitor General rightfully recognized that neither the district court’s factual findings, nor the court of appeals’ application of the Supreme Court’s precedents to those findings, warrants further review,” Harvard President Lawrence Bacow mentioned in a commentary.
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Harvard additionally states that decrease court docket rulings wherein the Grutter determination used to be implemented discovered no discrimination towards Asian-American scholars, as argued by means of SFFA. The college cites two different affirmative motion precedent circumstances – Regents of the University of California v. Bakke and Fisher v. University of Texas – which, Harvard argues, have generated a number of reliance pursuits over the 40 years that race-based affirmative motion has been in play.
“I’m sure if the court reverses the lower court decisions, there will be a dissent arguing that they should have upheld the decisions. So, it could be a fragmented court, but the majority might be split between people who say diversity is not compelling and people who say, ‘Wait, we still want to recognize that it’s compelling, but we don’t believe Harvard or North Carolina offered sufficient evidence that the programs were necessary,” Moran mentioned.
On August 1, 56 Catholic faculties and universities, together with Georgetown University, Notre Dame, and Boston College submitted an amicus temporary in enhance of Harvard University, urging the Court to maintain race as an admissions issue.

Prospective scholars excursion Georgetown University’s campus, on July 10, 2013, in Washington.
((AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File))
“Like many secular colleges and universities, many Catholic colleges and universities consider race as one factor in their individualized review of student applications. They do so in order to advance their academic mission by exposing students to diverse backgrounds in their classes and extracurricular activities and by producing diverse classes of graduates to serve as future leaders in the Nation’s government, business, nonprofit and education sectors,” the temporary reads.
However, regardless of on which facet of the aisle constitutional regulation professionals stand, each side agree the chance of the Court overturning the precedent case is prime.
“I very much hope that the Court does not overrule Bakke, Grutter, and Fisher, but I fear it will,” Chemerinsky mentioned.
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“I think Grutter was wrongly decided. And, you know, membership of the Court has changed significantly since the case was decided. And I think this new Court has no sympathy for using race in any way,” John Yoo, Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at UC Berkeley, informed Fox News Digital.
Even if the Supreme Court had been to facet with SFFA, von Spakovsky says race-based admissions would possibly not be utterly eradicated because of the Court’s determination.
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“[Universities] will continue to try to do this and find some way around the statute. So, while I hope the Supreme Court does the right thing, even if they do the right thing, I think there’s going to be a long road of more lawsuits down the road to stop specific schools from engaging in this kind of wrongful behavior,” von Spakovsky mentioned.
Moran additionally expects that one of these ruling would no doubt have an effect on universities’ and faculties’ authority as instructional establishments, in particular in relation to curriculum.
“If the court said that diversity is not a compelling interest, the first thing to bear in mind is that because they likely said academic freedom is not a constitutionally protected interest under the First Amendment, at least in so far as it relates to institutional autonomy to select the student body, that means that you will greatly weaken the autonomy of colleges and universities, not only with respect to admissions, but with respect to other things like curriculum,” Moran mentioned.
The Supreme Court launched its October/November calendar on August 3, saying that each Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina can be heard on Oct. 31.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson mentioned she’s going to recuse herself from the Harvard case given her finishing her time period at the Harvard Board of Overseers in spring 2022.