The US Supreme Court is considering two cases that could dramatically change the extent to which universities can consider an applicant’s race during the admissions process.
The final ruling could end decades-old affirmative action policies and significantly impact the way universities manage admissions.
Arguments in both cases began Monday in the Supreme Court.
Affirmative action is one of the most controversial issues in American education.
The cases involve admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The court hears challenges to their eligibility guidelines, which consider race among many factors when evaluating applications.
The guidelines are designed to increase the number of black and Hispanic students and ensure that minority groups are adequately represented among university student bodies.
However, the question the court is considering is whether they are discriminatory and violate civil rights laws. His final decision could radically affect the admissions plans of hundreds of colleges across the United States.
The plaintiffs, a nonprofit group called Students for Fair Admissions, allege Harvard discriminated against Asian-American applicants in order to encourage representation from other groups.
In the case of the University of North Carolina, the same group argues that the use of racial designations in the college’s admissions process violates both the US Constitution and state civil rights laws that cover public universities.
The court’s nine judges are expected to make a decision at the end of the court’s current term in July 2023.
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The Harvard case — Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College — has been making its way through the U.S. court system since 2014, when the nonprofit first sued the university.
Led by conservative activist Edward Blum, Students for Fair Admissions opposes affirmative action policies.
The group is urging the Supreme Court to overturn the precedent in a landmark 2003 case, Grutter v. Bollinger, which upheld positive action guidelines at a state university. This decision paved the way for universities to consider race as one of several factors in student admissions.
The court, which has a Conservative majority of 6-3, is expected to be sympathetic to the group’s challenges.
In court filings, Harvard denied discrimination, arguing that it uses race as a factor in admissions within the parameters of the law. It said its policies allow the university to build a more holistic educational experience for students.
Institutions like Harvard say they look at an applicant’s race as one of several factors — including economic status and religious belief — to build classes that accurately reflect the country’s racial and ethnic diversity.
“Americans view diversity as an integral part of learning and trust that the path to leadership is open to all,” Harvard University attorneys wrote in a court filing.
They said lifting precedents on positive action “would undermine public confidence in these core principles”.
Opinion polls show different attitudes towards positive action, often depending on how the question is asked.
A 2021 Gallup poll found that 62% of Americans support affirmative action programs. However, a separate poll released earlier this year by the Pew Research Center found that 74% of Americans — including a majority of Black or Hispanic respondents — believed race shouldn’t be considered in college admissions processes.
Advocates of Affirmative Action say they are helping to correct societal, economic and historical inequalities that prevent some minority groups from accessing America’s most elite educational institutions.
However, critics have long argued that considering race in university admissions is discriminatory and that such policies come at the expense of other groups or individual students.
Nine US states – including California, Florida, Georgia and Michigan – currently prohibit the use of race as a factor in admissions to public universities.
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