In its 2023 decision in "Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard," the Supreme Court effectively ended its approval of affirmative action in higher education admissions, holding that practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) were unlawful. The Court concluded that UNC's practices violated the guarantee of equal…

In "Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College ("SFFA")," the United States Supreme Court revisited an issue that had been litigated before it twenty years earlier. In two separate cases brought against the University of Michigan, the issue was whether it was a violation of the Constitution…

Few studies have focused on the role of Asian Americans in influencing how race is understood in affirmative action debates. However, accounting for the complicating presence of Asian Americans in the racial politics of affirmative action has become increasingly important. Informed by racial formation theory, this critical discourse analysis of…

Race-based affirmative action policies are widespread in higher education. Despite the prevalence of these policies, there is little consensus on how affirmative action policies affect students either before they reach college or after they matriculate into college. This study provides new evidence on the benefits of affirmative action policies…

The instability of the U.S. economy and its competitiveness in the global market has lead to increase request for investment in Higher Education programs. There exists a rising awareness among scholars of how inextricably education is tied to the strength of the economy, the well being of its populace, as well as the importance of a diversified…

The United States Department of Education (ED) and the United States Department of Justice issued this guidance to explain how, consistent with existing law, postsecondary institutions can voluntarily consider race to further the compelling interest of achieving diversity. It replaces the August 28, 2008 letter issued by ED's Office for Civil…

Despite the precedent established in the "University of California Board of Regents v. Bakke," that race may be used as a factor in admissions policies at state institutions of higher education, state and federal court decisions were divided over whether the use of race in admissions decisions was a violation of the Equal Protection…

This legal document examines whether the University of Michigan Law School's use of racial preferences in student admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (42 U.S.C. 2000d et. seq.), or 42 U.S.C. 1981. This brief filed by the federal government in support of the…

This legal document addresses whether the Court should reaffirm its decision in Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), holding that the educational benefits which flow from a diverse student body to an institution of higher education, its students, and the public it serves are sufficiently compelling to permit the…

Sandra Day O'Connor seems to have given us the next 25 years to reach a resolution to the racial gap in education--a problem on which we've made little headway in the last 25. Nathan Glazer is not sanguine that we'll fnd that answer, but he's prepared to live with the messy but, to him, satisfactory scheme of affirmative action that Justice…

This legal document addresses whether the Court should reaffirm its decision in Regents of University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978), holding that the educational benefits which flow from a diverse student body to an institution of higher education, its students, and the public it serves are sufficiently compelling to permit the…

This legal document presents the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the affirmative action case brought against the University of Michigan's Law School. On June 23, 2003, the Court held in Grutter v. Bollinger et al. that diversity is a compelling interest in higher education and that race is one of a number of factors that can be taken into…