In a landmark ruling, the United States Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions in universities. Reactions in the US to recent developments were at odds to each other – while Republicans hailed the ruling, Democrats went to lengths to deplore it.
Those against the ruling believed that a significant tool to ensure diversity on the campus was taken away by the court.
While dealing with the cases involving admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC), US Supreme Court banned the use of race and ethnicity in university admissions. Nine justices were involved in the ruling. The court ruled 6-3 against UNC and 6-2 against Harvard.
The decision was taken in the ideological lines, even as three liberals dissented.
The justices sided with an organisation called Students for Fair Admissions, founded by legal activist Edward Blum.
The group argued that Harvard's race-conscious admissions policy violated Title VI of 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bars discrimination based on race, colour or national origin, reported BBC.
What is affirmative action
The decades-old so called affirmative action, aims at addressing historical prejudices against individuals from certain identity groups. It made its way into policies in the 1960s.
US President Joe Biden expressed his strong disagreement with the recent ruling. He said that “We cannot let this decision the last word. Discrimination still exists in America.”
"This is not a normal court," he added.
While former US President Donald Trump hailed the decision as a "great day for America". "People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our Country, are finally being rewarded," he wrote on social media.
U.S. Supreme Court justices pose for their group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington. Seated (L-R) Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Elena Kagan. Standing (L-R): Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson | Reuters
The Justice's opinions
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, "Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin."
His opinion said that UNC and Harvard's policies were "well intentioned".
“Harvards's admissions process rests on the pernicious stereotype that 'a black student can usually bring something that a white person cannot offer'," he wrote.
While Justice Clarence Thomas, a conservative and the nation's second black justice that such programmes were "patently unconstitutional".
"Universities' self-proclaimed righteousness does not afford them license to discriminate on the basis of race," he said.
Liberal justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman appointed to the court dissented. "Truly a tragedy for us all", she said.
"With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat," she wrote.
Another dissenting liberal justice, Sonia Sotomayor said that the ruling "cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society."
Justice Roberts also wrote that “Most troubling of all is what the dissent must make these omissions to defend: a judiciary that picks winners and losers based on the color of their skin.”
Angie Gabeau, the president of Harvard Black Students Association told BBC that she was “very discouraged” by the decision.
Twice the US Supreme Court has backed affirmative action programmes at US universities.
US states including Arizona, California, Floria, Georgia, Oklahoma and Washington have already banned race-based college admissions.
Former US President Barack Obama said in a statement that affirmative action "allowed generations of students like Michelle and me to prove we belonged. Now it's up to all of us to give young people the opportunities they deserve- and help students everywhere benefit from new perspectives."
"We write today to reaffirm the fundamental principle that deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives and lived experiences," Harvard University said in a communications signed by leaders of the institution.
(With agencies inputs)
