The Supreme Court seems ready to toss out affirmative action

Race-conscious admissions policies have vocal but dwindling support

Mandatory Credit: Photo by JIM LO SCALZO/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock (13602162j)Supporters of affirmative action gather outside the US Supreme Court as the judges prepare to hear oral arguments in two cases challenging the use of race in college admissions in Washington, DC, USA, 31 October 2022. The challenges are to affirmative action in college admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.Supreme Court hears challenges to use of race in college admissions, Washington, USA - 31 Oct 2022

Nov 1st 2022|WASHINGTON, DC

“FIVE VOTES”, Justice William Brennan perennially told his law clerks, “can do anything around here.” When the Supreme Court first blessed limited racial preferences in university admissions in 1978, the margin was 5-4. In Grutter v Bollinger, decided in 2003, the same count upheld the University of Michigan law school’s admissions policy seeking a “critical mass” of under-represented minority applicants. In 2016, another one-vote margin salvaged affirmative action in Fisher v University of Texas.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Off colour”