Supreme Court blocks use of race in Harvard, UNC admissions in blow to diversity efforts

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Thursday invalidated race-conscious admissions policies used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina to diversify their campuses, a decision with enormous consequences not only for higher education but also the American workplace.

In a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court held that the policies violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Harvard, the nation's oldest private college, and the University of North Carolina, which lays claim to being its oldest public college, acknowledged considering race as one of many factors in determining admissions, an approach consistent with Supreme Court precedent. But that 2003 decision was crafted by a different Supreme Court that included swing-vote justices who often reached conclusions through compromise.

Several members of the current court's conservative majority, including Chief Justice John Roberts, had long signaled skepticism about affirmative action.

The admissions cases were part of a broader conservative push to reimagine the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. Adopted after the Civil War, the amendment was intended to protect the rights of former slaves who were subjected to discriminatory state laws, particularly in the South. The wider debate – forged in the context of voting, housing, criminal justice and other areas – is whether the clause requires colorblind policies or whether, to stem discrimination, race may be considered.

Perhaps sensing a shifting landscape on the court, two lawsuits filed by Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action group founded by conservative legal strategist Edward Blum, asked the justices to decide whether the 2003 precedent should be overruled. Years in the making, the litigation arrived as the nation continued to wrestle with the fallout from the decision last year to overturn Roe v. Wade.