Some call Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action in higher ed a victory, others express 'disgust'
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With the U.S. Supreme Court having struck down affirmative action in college admissions on Thursday, schools are now forced to come up with new ways to bring diversity to their campuses.
The court ruled 6-3 that race-conscious admission policies of Harvard College and the University of North Carolina violate the Constitution.
"Affirmative action is a well-intentioned idea that is poorly executed in reality," said Calvin Yang of Students for Fair Admissions, which brought the lawsuit against Harvard College that led to the ruling.
The schools were accused of giving preference to Black and Latino students while discriminating against white and Asian applicants.
"The Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. "Both programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today."
But Roberts wrote that universities can still consider "an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise." Military academies are effectively exempt from the decision, due to the "potentially distinct interests" they present.
Students, the chief justice concluded, must be evaluated based on their experiences "as an individual — not on the basis of race."
"Many universities have for too long done just the opposite," Roberts said. "And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice."
In a fierce dissent, Sotomayor said the majority opinion is "not grounded in law or fact and contravenes the vision of equality embodied in the Fourteenth Amendment."
"Today, this Court stands in the way and rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress. It holds that race can no longer be used in a limited way in college admissions to achieve such critical benefits," she wrote. "In so holding, the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter."
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported, the consequence of the ruling is that colleges and universities all over the country will now have to navigate a new set of rules and laws when it comes to the admissions process - and how to recruit diverse student bodies while still complying with the law.
In Chicago, former Chicago Public Schools Chief Executive Officer Janice Jackson now heads Hope Chicago – a nonprofit that helps students graduate from college debt free.
"The word that comes to mind is just disgust," Jackson said. "I think for all the progress we've made around college access, upward mobility - especially for Black and Latino families and people of color in this country - I feel like it's a huge setback."
Peter Breen, of the conservative Thomas More Society, called the ruling a victory for the country.
"Affirmative action strikes against everything we as Americans know to be part of our national heritage - that we be judged on the content of our character, not the color of our skin," Breen said.
But with race no longer a factor in the admissions process, getting into college will be more challenging for students from underrepresented backgrounds, says Charles Walton, executive director of 100 Black Men Chicago.
"It did help push the needle to make sure that educational institutions were being supportive of having a more inclusive and diverse college community," Walton said.
The path for schools is still unclear. The court ruled that schools may consider essays from students about the impact of race in their life.
Judge Sotomayor called that suggestion like putting lipstick on a pig.
