U s supreme court decisions today12/8/2023 ![]() When the case reached the Supreme Court, four Justices favored striking down the program because it allowed for race-based preferences, while four Justices thought that the Davis Medical School could, consistent with the 14 th Amendment, reserve a set number of places for minority applicants. Although whites could apply through that committee, no whites secured admission using this route. The University of California at Davis medical school reserved 16% of its available places for applicants recommended by a special committee that reviewed applicants whose academic credentials were below, often substantially below, what the school ordinarily required for admission. Bakke established the precedent that for 45 years has allowed colleges and universities to engage in race-based affirmative action. Regents of the University of California v. In 1978, a second case challenging the constitutionality of affirmative action reached the Supreme Court. Bakke and Diversity: The Controlling Rationale Affirmative action has been on shaky ground ever since. In dissent, he emphasized the need for racial neutrality, leaving no doubt that he would have held the affirmative action plan at issue unconstitutional. What surprised Court watchers was the view of Justice Douglas, perhaps the furthest left of the Court’s members and a staunch advocate for racial justice and equality throughout his career. It was dismissed as moot in 1974 because DeFunis, a University of Washington law school applicant, had been allowed to attend the school while he was suing it and was weeks from graduation by the time the Court’s opinion would issue. Odegaard: A Shot Over the Bowĭefunis was the first case challenging the constitutionality of racial preferences to reach the Court. Here are the most important cases leading up to the current litigation and a discussion of affirmative action’s educational impacts as I observed them while teaching at the University of Michigan. The Court’s conservative wing now has 6 members, meaning there is no single swing vote. Today the most centrist Justice, Chief Justice Roberts, is on racial matters well to the right of the Justices whose votes were pivotal in prior litigation. In suits against the University of California Regents, the University of Michigan, and the University of Texas at Austin, they had Courts that leaned right, but in each case the most centrist of the conservative-leaning bloc refused to pull the trigger. Opponents expected to be celebrating affirmative action’s demise before now. ![]() Given the leanings of six of the nine Supreme Court Justices and their prior rulings on race-related issues, neither of these jurisprudential principles is likely to matter. To achieve these outcomes a conservative majority will have to reject 40 years of a twice reaffirmed precedent as well as the likely intent of the framers of the 14 th Amendment and of the Congress that enacted the Civil Rights Act. interpret Section VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act as similarly restricting race conscious admissions at any school receiving federal funds.read the 14 th amendment as barring the use of racial preferences by public colleges and universities and.Court watchers are almost unanimous that the Supreme Court majority will: President and Fellows of Harvard and SFAI v. ![]() Sometime in the next six weeks the Supreme Court will likely reveal its decisions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |