Supreme Court puts an end to affirmative action in universities – emancipation

It’s a new 180-degree turn, a new historic step back for many progressives, and certainly a very strong new symbol from the Supreme Court’s benches, now firmly locked in by American conservatives. A year after sparking helpless outrage from a majority of Americans and ending federal abortion rights, the United States Supreme Court on Thursday ended affirmative action programs at universities.

Its six conservative justices, against three progressives, held that campus admissions practices based on candidates’ skin color or ethnic origin were unconstitutional.

Many universities “They wrongly assume that the basis of a person’s identity is not their trials, acquired skills, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history has not tolerated that.The Court’s President (“Chief Justice”), Justice John Roberts, wrote for the majority. “In other words, the student should be treated on the basis of his personal experiences, not on the basis of racial criteria.”He adds.

In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a progressive appointed by Barack Obama, emphasized the opposite. “Equal Opportunity in Education” was set up “A Prerequisite for Achieving Racial Equality in Our Country”. Today this court “Decades of jurisprudence and tremendous progress” and “affirm the artificial rule of indifference to skin color as a constitutional principle in a deeply segregated society where the question of race is always salient and ‘must have some.’She also insists.

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Many highly selective universities introduced racial and ethnic criteria into their admissions practices in the late 1960s to correct inequities stemming from America’s segregationist past and to increase the share of black, Hispanic, or Native American students in their numbers. Known as “affirmative action,” these policies have always been highly criticized in conservative circles, who view them as opaque and “reverse racism.”

Referred to on several occasions since 1978, the Supreme Court has banned quotas but has always authorized universities to take racial criteria into account, among other things. Until now, she judged “law” The search for greater diversity on campuses, even if it violates the principle of equality between all American citizens.

Thursday’s ruling, which will force American universities to review their admissions practices, finds its genesis in a 2014 lawsuit filed against Harvard and North Carolina, America’s oldest private and public universities. Edward Bloom, a neoconservative activist and head of an association called “Students for Fair Admissions,” accused them of discriminating against Asian students. The latter, with clearly above-average academic results, would be more numerous on campus if their performance were the only selection criterion, he argued.

After suffering several defeats in court, he returned to the Supreme Court, which, ironically, was no different than it is today, with two African-American justices and one Hispanic. But the high court has been profoundly reshuffled by Donald Trump, and now has six of the nine conservative justices, including African-American Justice Clarence Thomas, a defender of affirmative action programs who studied at prestigious Yale University.

“Willful ignorance of our reality”

The administration of Democratic President Joe Biden pleaded in vain for the status quo. “The future of our country depends on our ability to lead an increasingly diverse society with leaders of diverse profiles”, had supported his representative. In the same vein, major companies including Apple, General Motors, Accenture and Starbucks have insisted. “Diverse employees improved their performance” And they are “Depending on schools across the country to train their future workforce.”

Unlike the federal right to abortion, which is protected by a majority of Americans, affirmative action in university access has created more divisions within public opinion. According to a recent study by the Pew Research CenterHalf of Americans say they oppose considering race and ethnicity in college admissions decisions, while about a third approve of the practice.

But the survey in question shows significant differences precisely along racial and ethnic criteria. Majorities of white and Asian adults disapprove of affirmative action, while black Americans overwhelmingly support it, and Hispanics are split.

In a statement released moments after the Supreme Court’s ruling, the NAACP, the landmark black American rights organization, expressed dismay: “In a society still marked by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court shows willful ignorance of our reality”.