Watching the news yesterday, I saw breaking news flash across my screen regarding affirmative action being struck down by SCOTUS. I rarely go by headlines because they tend to exaggerate or use hyperbole to grab attention. Went digging around the internet for any articles on that decision. Found some articles that seem to indicate that SCOTUS didn't strike down affirmative action entirely but other articles made no distinction. So that will be part of the debate here.
Here's an article that reports the SCOTUS decision as a blanket ban (the part in green font leaves door open for a different interpretation):
For Debate:
1. Does Scotus decision do away with affirmative action entirely or partially?
2. Is affirmative action good policy for higher education schools? Is it necessary?
Here's an article that reports the SCOTUS decision as a blanket ban (the part in green font leaves door open for a different interpretation):
Source: NBC NewsWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard in a major victory for conservative activists, ending the systematic consideration of race in the admissions process.
The court ruled that both programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and are therefore unlawful. The vote was 6-3 in the UNC case and 6-2 in the Harvard case, in which liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was recused.
The court effectively overturned the 2003 ruling Grutter v. Bollinger, in which it said race could be considered as a factor in the admissions process because universities had a compelling interest in maintaining diverse campuses. In doing so, the court scrapped decades of precedent, including a ruling dating to 1978, that upheld a limited consideration of race in university admissions to combat historic discrimination against Black people and other minority groups.
In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts did not explicitly say the former precedents were overruled, but in a concurring opinion, conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, only the second Black justice to be appointed to the court, said the Grutter case was, "for all intents and purposes, overruled."
Roberts wrote that 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."
The ruling is likely to have repercussions far beyond higher education, including on K-12 schools, and it puts increased pressure on colleges to come up with workable race-neutral programs that would foster racial diversity. The decision could also lead to future challenges to racial diversity programs used by employers, as similar arguments could be made under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment.
For Debate:
1. Does Scotus decision do away with affirmative action entirely or partially?
2. Is affirmative action good policy for higher education schools? Is it necessary?