SFFA In The Courts: Where We Are Before The Administration Change

Key Takeaways:

• Litigants have begun testing the reach of SFFA to other aspects of organizations' operations, well beyond college admissions.
• Scholarship and grant programs, procurement policies, and employment decisions have faced challenges within higher education and beyond.
• Higher education institutions and other organizations should audit their policies and programs to assess if and where race-based decision making is involved.

It has been over a year since the Supreme Court issued its decision striking down Harvard's and the University of North Carolina's admissions policies in Students for Fair Admissions ("SFFA") v. Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina (together referenced herein as "SFFA"). The Court's holding in SFFA addressed only university admissions programs, but as many anticipated, the decision's impact has not been so limited. With the incoming second Trump administration and a new Congress beginning its term,