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CHICAGO (WLS) — A divided Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
The court’s conservative majority effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years in invalidating admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest private and public colleges, respectively.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, saying both schools violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment, and therefore must be invalidated.
In a fierce dissent, Justice Sonia Sotamayor wrote that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”
The decision, like last year’s momentous abortion ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, marked the realization of a long-sought conservative legal goal. Colleges and universities will be forced to reshape their admissions practices, especially at top schools that are more likely to consider the race of applicants.
“It’s going to impact you know Northwestern, Harvard, Yale, and these are schools that have really prided themselves of changing the face of the American elite,” said Alvin Tillery, director of the Northwestern University Center for Study of Diversity and Democracy.
Tillery said the ruling will fundamentally change the admissions process for elite colleges and universities like Northwestern and decrease diversity within them.
“It will certainly hurt Black, Latino and poor Asian students who are the main beneficiaries of affirmative action at the elite colleges; it will reduce their numbers. That is absolutely correct,” he said.
He said while imperfect, affirmative action in higher education was an effort to actively integrate academic institutions that had remained largely segregated in the Jim Crow era and beyond.
“We had affirmative action to fix this old era of racial dictatorship,” Tillery explained.
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Peter Breen of the conservative Thomas Moore Society based in Chicago said the ruling is a win for the country and academic institutions as a whole.
“Affirmative action has instead created a toxic racial environment. It has not helped our country become a more colorblind place,” Breen said. “The college admissions process should not depend on the color of your skin. That’s it. Let’s talk about experience. Let’s talk about leadership, let’s talk about the real factors that go into it.”
Chicago-based Congressman Jonathan Jackson said the ruling makes the country weaker.
“What’s left in place is legacy,” he said. “Did you parents go to the school? What’s left in place is, are your parents donors? What’s left in place is, are you an international student willing to pay more? The only factor is should race be even considered.”
And counselors working with minority students to get into college said the decision changes everything.
“This will significantly impact and stunt the number of diverse and talented students and historically underrepresented students who are going to college and who are able to access opportunities at elite universities,” said counselor Lauren Hurley.
Ezra Sergent-Levenhal, a masters student in higher education at Northwestern, said he’s hopeful
“A lot of folks have a lot of upward mobility with a credential like a Northwestern degree and I think affirmative action has done a great job of sharing that in a way that 100 years ago that wasn’t the case,” he said. “That’s only a generation or two ago and I think that still matters and it’s tough to see folks discrediting that history.”
Many questions remain over how this will play out in praxis at universities across the country, and any unforeseen effects of the ruling. Governor JB Pritzker responded to the decision, saying in part, “This decision only sets us back…To students of color throughout the Land of Lincoln and the entire United States: you belong in our institutions. And no archaic ruling will ever change that.”
