The Supreme Court has dealt a blow to so-called “affirmative action” and ruled that colleges and universities should stop applying race as a criterion in selecting students.
The judges’ decision forces educational institutions to find other ways to integrate students of diverse origins.
With a vote of 6-3, the High Court judges annulled the admission plans at Harvard and North Carolina universities.
“In the Harvard admissions process, ‘race is a determining factor for’ a significant percentage ‘of all admitted African-American and Hispanic applicants,'” the Court acknowledges, considering that this is not a way to evaluate applications, since universities should avoid contemplating race.
“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating it entirely,” says the opinion of Chief Justice John Roberts. “Accordingly, the Court has held that the Equal Protection Clause applies ‘without regard to any difference of race, color, or national origin’…Because ‘[l]The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to an individual and another when applied to a person of another color”, the opinion says.