In ten days, on October 31, 2022, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in two very important affirmative action education cases. In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College (Harvard), the plaintiffs argue that Harvard used race at multiple stages of the admission process in a manner that violates applicable law and disadvantages Asian applicants. In Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina (UNC), the plaintiffs argue that UNC utilized race in admissions in a manner that was not narrowly tailored enough to be legal and as a result, it disadvantages Asian applicants. More specifically, the plaintiffs in these cases claim that the admissions policies of these universities violate the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
In ruling on these cases, the Supreme Court will likely consider whether to overrule the court’s 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, where the Supreme Court held that the University of Michigan could consider race, in a narrowly tailored manner, in its undergraduate admissions process as part of its diversity efforts and goal of obtaining a more diverse student body.