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the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the Supreme Court consolidated the case with the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.’s case against Harvard College at petitioners’ request.34
With respect to the case against the University of North Carolina, in a brief filed with the Court on November 11, 2021, the petitioner asserted:
This case is a companion to Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard University []. Both cases were filed on the same day. The Harvard case challenges racial preferences at the nation’s oldest private college, and this case challenges racial preferences at the nation’s oldest public college. The Harvard case asks this Court to overrule Grutter and hold that Title VI forbids funding recipients from using race in admissions. This case asks the Court to recognize that, for public schools, the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of racial neutrality compels the same conclusion. Certiorari before judgment is appropriate here for the same reasons it was in Gratz v. Bollinger, the companion case to Grutter that was argued and decided on the same day.35
On January 24, 2022, the Supreme Court granted certiorari to hear both cases.36 When considering the arguments raised by the petitioner it is clear that the Court will have to re-evaluate the decisions in Bakke, Gratz, and Grutter.37
IV. Forthcoming Impacts on Diversity and Inclusion Efforts
In an article entitled, This is the End of Affirmative Action, written by Adam Harris, Harris outlines the importance of analyzing what affirmative action has accomplished and what it has failed to accomplish regarding diversity and inclusion efforts to understand the potential impact of the Supreme Court’s upcoming decision in the Students for Fair Admissions, Inc.’s pending cases.38
Harris began his discussion in 1946 when President Truman commissioned a comprehensive report on higher education. “The study found that 75,000 Black students were enrolled in America’s colleges, and about 85 percent of them went to poorly funded Black institutions.”39 As a result of the report, President Truman’s administration established the concept of affirmative action, which “jump-started Black enrollment at majority-white colleges.” Consequently, “the number of Black graduates boomed—more than doubling from the early 1970s to the mid-’90s.” In comparison, we must look at policies that removed affirmative action initiatives.40 “In 2006, Michigan prohibited the consideration of race in admissions at public colleges and universities. Black students made up 9 percent of the University of Michigan before the ban and 4 percent a few years after it went into effect.”41 Although, there may be questions on the experience of Black
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See Petition for a Writ of Certiorari Before Judgment at 6-7, Students of Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina,142 S. Ct. 896 (2022) (No. 21-707).
Id. at 6-7.
Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard Coll., 2022 U.S. LEXIS 698, 142 S. Ct. 895, 211 L. Ed. 2d
604, 90 U.S.L.W. 3220, 2022 WL 199375 (2022).
See Petition for a Writ of Certiorari Before Judgment. Harris, supra note 12 at 2.
Id.
Id.
Id.
Insights SPRING2021