Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Case Challenging Harvard and UNC’s Affirmative Action Policies

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would revisit the question of affirmative action in higher education, deciding to hear a case challenging Harvard and the University of North Carolina‘s use of race in college admissions.

The injustices will consider the policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill after conservative nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions challenged the undergraduate admissions policies at the two universities.

The court will also reexamine 43 years of precedent by asking whether race can ever play a role in admissions.

The court likely will hear the cases in its next term starting in October, and the case could be decided by June 2023.

Student by Fair Admissions, founded by Edward Blum to end the race in any university admissions process, alleged that Harvard discriminates against Asian Americans. Lower courts have previously ruled that the schools have used race to achieve more diversity among the student body in a legally acceptable way.

The move rebuffed the Biden administration, which has asked the justices to turn away the challenge to Harvard University last month, arguing the school’s admissions practices were lawful.

In court papers, Harvard denied that its policy is discriminatory. The school accused SFFA of a brazen attempt to upend decades of precedent allowing schools to promote on-campus diversity by considering the race of their student bodies.

“Having failed to make the case that Harvard’s admission practices contravene the court’s [recendents governing the use of race in admissions, SFFA asks the court to overthrow them,” Harvard wrote in a filing last May.]

SFFA alleges that Asian American applicants are held to a higher academic standard than other students. The group argues that Asian Americans are disadvantaged in the application process due to receiving lower “personal ratings” and being admitted at a lower rate than white applicants despite having higher test scores on average.

SFFA has asked the court to overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 decision in which the Supreme Court upheld the right of college admissions boards to factor in applicants’ race to benefit minority groups and enhance diversity.

In a petition appeal, the group wrote: “Grutter’s core holding – that universities can use race in admissions to pursue student-body diversity — is plainly wrong.” The challengers say their case against Harvard’s policy gives the court an “ideal vehicle” for reevaluating its stance on affirmative action, given the school’s outsize role in past rulings.

A Boston federal judge rejected SFFA’s bid in 2019 and found Havard’s admission program was lawful. The decision was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, prompting SFFA’s appeal to the Supreme Court.