ACLU Joins Chorus Slamming SCOTUS Rulings Restricting Affirmative Action in Higher Education

By The Vanguard Staff

WASHINGTON, DC – The ACLU, among others, slammed the U.S. Supreme Court decision Thursday to restrict a school’s ability to address systemic racial equalities in higher education, calling the rulings “part of a larger effort to rewrite our nation’s history, erase the lived experiences of people of color, and obstruct our full and equal participation in our democracy.”

In two rulings in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. UNC , SCOTUS’ decisions striking down affirmative action is leading many to fear “applications from Black, Latino and other students of color will drop, and say a key priority will be to assure those students that they matter and that campus commitment to diversity remains strong,” said the Los Angeles Times.

The ACLU did admit the court “recognized that the values of diversity are ‘commendable goals’ and that schools can consider applicants’ own discussion of how race has impacted their lives.”

In the opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, wrote the ACLU, the court emphasized “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

The sweeping decision eliminated the use of race in admissions decisions nationwide for the first time since the high court allowed the practice in 1978 to promote diversity. Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit opposed to racial preferences, alleged that Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection by considering race in admissions decisions.

The high court agreed in a majority opinion written by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. The ruling noted that the appellate court found Harvard’s affirmative action program resulted in fewer admissions of Asian American students and the Ivy League campus’ assertion that race was never used as a negative factor in selections “cannot withstand scrutiny.” 

But Roberts, noted The Times, also wrote the decision will still allow students to write about their backgrounds in college essays, but “institutions must consider that background in the context of applicants’ ‘quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university’ and treat them based on experiences as individuals, not on the basis of race.”

The Times said the rulings mean, “Moving forward, universities can and should also examine and improve their policies and practices to expand opportunity, including broadening recruitment efforts to underserved communities, developing robust middle school and high school pipelines, increasing need-based supports, and improving campus climate.”

“The Supreme Court’s decision today does not change the responsibility of colleges and universities to increase educational opportunities for students of color,” said ReNika Moore, Director of the ACLU’s Racial Justice Program.

Moore added, “Colleges have long touted diversity as imperative to creating enriching educational environments for all students — our institutions of higher education must double down on that commitment and advance policies that ensure every student gets a fair shot. In fact, colleges can still consider race in alternative ways and students can continue to discuss race and how it has shaped their character or unique abilities in the college admissions process.”

“Our nation’s future as a thriving multiracial democracy depends on students having the freedom and opportunity to learn, work together, and understand what unites us. We will continue to fight to realize that future and remove the barriers and inequities Black, Latino, Native American, Asian American, and other underrepresented groups experience, not only in higher education, but throughout the K-12 system,” Moore concluded.

Christopher Nellum, executive director of Ed Trust-West, a nonprofit organization focused on education equity, told the LA Times, “We’re really worried about private colleges and universities and what it means for representation. Young people, particularly young people of color, …are going receive this as a message that they don’t belong.”

“Many campus leaders, bracing for this outcome, had begun planning how to extend opportunity to all students through more robust recruitment and academic preparation programs in underserved communities of color. But they also worry about the cost of such efforts — or whether their state officials have the political will to carry them out,” added The LA Times.

“The decision won’t directly affect the University of California or California State University. State voters banned affirmative action at public campuses by approving Proposition 209 in 1996. But more than 80 private institutions in the state have been free to consider race in admissions decisions and many have watched the growing challenges to diversity initiatives with alarm,” said the LA Times.

In response to the ruling, Traci Griffith, Director of the ACLU of Massachusetts’ Racial Justice Program, said, “The movement against affirmative action is part of a larger effort to rewrite our nation’s history, erase the lived experiences of people of color, and obstruct our full and equal participation in our democracy. 

“We’re seeing books by Black and LGBTQ authors banned from school curricula in an attempt to stop students at all levels from learning and talking about race and gender in public schools. We will continue to fight these discriminatory policies. We are united by our shared commitment to opportunity and freedom from discrimination and we know that when everyone has access to what they need to reach their highest potential, we all benefit.”

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Massachusetts, and the ACLU of North Carolina filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold universities’ ability to consider race in college admissions. 

In the brief, the ACLU said it “argued that race-conscious admissions policies like affirmative action have helped address our country’s long history of discrimination and systemic inequality in education by increasing access for underrepresented groups who face systemic barriers to higher education (and)  a holistic, race-conscious admissions process is the extension of a university’s academic freedom to assemble a student body across all races and ethnicities.”

Kristi Graunke Legal Director of the ACLU of North Carolina, noted, “Students should continue to discuss race and their lived experiences in the college admissions process. The decisions should not prevent colleges and universities from inquiring about such experiences in relation to their university missions. Nothing in the Court’s decisions in these cases should prevent that.”

Graunke added, “We must invest in pathways that increase access to opportunities for students across all races and ethnicities, and address discrimination and systemic racial inequalities that persist.”

The LA Times cited a 2019 Pew Research study of 1,364 four-year institutions that showed that most accept most applications and “only 17 admitted fewer than 10 percent of applicants — including Stanford, Harvard and Yale — and 29 accepted between 10 percent and 20 percent, including USC.”