Supreme Court Holds Affirmative Action Unconstitutional, So What's Next?

The United States Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Students for Fair Admissions v Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College on 29 June 2023, finding the race-conscious admissions programmes used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to be unconstitutional.

The court had previously held that colleges and universities had a compelling interest in the educational benefits of a racially diverse student body that supported the use of race as one factor in a holistic college admissions programme. While the Supreme Court did not explicitly overrule that precedent in the Harvard decision, it functionally found that such an approach will no longer be allowed under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment for public institutions or under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act for any institution that accepts federal financial assistance.