“I strongly oppose the Supreme Court’s decision, which reflects decades of case law,” the 80-year-old president said in a televised address. “Universities must not abdicate their commitment to ensuring that students have diverse experiences that reflect all of America.”
Former President and 2024 Presidential Candidate Donald Trump speaks on the social reality of “A Great Day for America.” “This is the decision that everyone has been waiting for and hoping for and the result is amazing. We are back to a system based entirely on merit and that is how it should be.”
Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy also spoke of a positive decision that “restores equality among students.”
“Constitutional history will not tolerate this.”
The US Supreme Court, which is controlled by conservatives, earlier today rejected student admissions programs that use affirmative action, the so-called affirmative action doctrine. It’s about admissions programs at Harvard and North Carolina universities that use targeted policies to increase the number of blacks, Hispanics, and other underrepresented groups on campus.
The six conservative justices have ruled, against the advice of three liberals, that campus admissions procedures based on applicants’ skin color or race are unconstitutional. Many universities have taken the wrong position that the basis of a person’s identity is not their test, the skills they have acquired, or the lessons they have learned, but the color of their skin. Justice John Roberts wrote on behalf of the majority: “Our constitutional history will not tolerate this.”
Since 1964
In 1964, then-President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Executive Order 11246. In doing so, he required all institutions that receive federal government funding to absorb more nonwhites through affirmative action, which led, among other things, to racial quotas.
The Supreme Court has ruled against the quota system several times since 1978, but has always allowed universities to take racial criteria into account, among other things. So far, the court has deemed the push for more diversity on campus “legitimate,” even if it means violating the principle of equality for all American citizens.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote on behalf of progressives that the court is “rolling back decades of tremendous progress.” She continued, “It establishes an artificial base for indifference to skin color as a constitutional principle in a deeply isolated society, where race has always and will matter.”
