The Supreme Court handed down decisions in two cases on June 29, Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina. The court overruled decades of precedent allowing public and private universities to consider race as one small factor among many in making student admissions decisions.
The National Education Association (NEA) filed an amicus brief in the cases, arguing that the court should continue to permit such equitable and inclusive admissions policies. For more than four decades, colleges and universities seeking to achieve the educational benefits of diversity in their student body have been able to consider an applicant’s race, as one of many factors, in the context of a holistic admissions process.
“Most of us want a country, schools and a future that includes all of us and where we all belong,” said NEA President Becky Pringle. “But for too long, color-coded barriers have been used to prevent Black, Brown, and Indigenous people from accessing the opportunities we all deserve and seek to achieve our dreams. With this decision, the Supreme Court has reinforced those barriers.
“Racism and discrimination are not just artifacts of American history but continue to persist in our society, including our schools, colleges, and universities,” Pringle said. “Affirmative action and programs like it expand higher education opportunities to those who have been historically denied a fair shot. When we ensure the many talents and experiences of students of color aren’t overlooked in admissions processes that tend to be biased against them, we create schools, a country and a future that includes us all. NEA remains committed to that work and calls on institutions of higher education and K-12 schools to redouble their efforts to ensure that our educational institutions support all students equally and equitably.
“We are stronger when our country, communities, schools, and future includes and reflects all of us,” she concluded. “Today’s decisions by an out-of-touch and hyper-conservative Supreme Court are yet more evidence that the court is not working for all of us. The White House and Senate must hold the Supreme Court to the same laws and standards as the rest of us. And the White House and the Senate must continue to fill all judicial vacancies with qualified, fair-minded individuals who are committed to civil and human rights and social and economic justice so that our legal system can serve us all.”
DRACONIAN RULING
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten said the draconian ruling by the Supreme Court is a catastrophic decision that will have dire outcomes for millions of Americans for decades to come.
“This decision ignores the original sin of this country — it’s a throwback to a cruel, racist past that admissions policies like this tried to repair,” Weingarten said. “This decision doesn’t simply end affirmative action, it has huge consequences for public life far beyond higher education. Ignoring the facts before them, the majority pretends that both discrimination and the effects of discrimination simply do not exist and do not need to be tackled.”
DECADES OF PRECEDENT
“Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress,” wrote Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent. “The Court subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society.”
“Our country has never been colorblind,” wrote Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “Given the lengthy history of state-sponsored race-based preferences in America, to say that anyone is now victimized if a college considers whether that legacy of discrimination has unequally advantaged its applicants fails to acknowledge the well-documented ‘intergenerational transmission of inequality’ that still plagues our citizenry.”
‘DEVASTATED’
“As an educator and union leader, I am devastated that countless Black, Brown, Indigenous, and marginalized students will lose opportunities to pursue higher education at top universities,” said Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT) President Dan Montgomery. “This harmful ruling will have lasting implications for students looking to attend institutions that seek to promote diversity and equity in their student bodies and will have detrimental effects far beyond the few universities at issue in today’s rulings.
“We cannot continue to sweep racism under the rug and pretend that our institutions are color blind,” he said. “Sadly, today justices stripped thousands of students of their futures by making it acceptable for institutions to operate under exclusionary policies. Their decision seriously threatens democracy and equality and harkens back to our shameful Jim Crow past.
“As this court did with Labor rights in Janus, with voting rights in Holder, and with reproductive rights in Dobbs, these affirmative action decisions cavalierly discard decades of established law. Americans are in the clutches of a rogue radical right-wing court detached from mainstream American legal thought and far out of touch with the beliefs of most Americans.”
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