US Supreme Court bans race-based admissions in Harvard, 1 more university: The TL:DR

The details: The decision was a divided one, with the court’s conservative justices pushing the order and the liberal justices in dissent. The votes were 6-3 against the University of North Carolina and 6-2 against Harvard, as liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson refrained from participating in the Harvard case.

“Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,” Chief Justice John Roberts stated, referring to the American Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.

What the dissenters said: Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the apex court’s first Latino judge, wrote in her dissent that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.” The Supreme Court’s first Black female justice Ketanji Brown Jackson called the decision “truly a tragedy for us all,” noting that “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.”

The government reaction: President Joe Biden said that he “strongly, strongly” disagreed with the court’s ruling. “We cannot let this decision be the last word. While the Court can render a decision, it cannot change what America stands for,” Biden stated. He urged colleges to seek other routes to diversity, saying that institutes should “continue to support, retain, and graduate diverse students and classes.”

Meanwhile, former US President Donald Trump, who is expected to contest the 2024 Presidential Election as the Republican candidate, hailed it as “a great day for America.”

What’s next: A statement issued by Harvard president Lawrence and other administrative leaders of the prestigious university affirmed that the Massachusetts-based institute will comply with the court’s order, while ensuring that members from all walks of life continue to join Harvard’s community.

“In the weeks and months ahead, drawing on the talent and expertise of our Harvard community, we will determine how to preserve, consistent with the Court’s new precedent, our essential values.”