The Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action

The June 29 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action effectively ends race-conscious admissions practices in higher education and erodes 40 years of precedent. In a 6-3 ruling, the majority used the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment—which was created to rectify the inequality faced by Black Americans—to disband the practice of race-conscious admissions. This decision in favor of neutrality denies the nation’s history of racial injustice, and as Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stated in her dissent, “condemns our society to never escape the past that explains how and why race matters to the very concept of who ‘merits’ admission.” Read more…