reminder: The U.S. Constitution supports affirmative action

Under the United States Constitution, a public university may take a student’s race into account as one of the factors in determining admission. In the 2003 case of Grutter v. Bollinger, the United States Supreme Court held that a university’s interest in achieving a racially diverse student body is a compelling governmental interest for constitutional purposes, justifying the university’s consideration of race — along with other factors such as where a student lives, where a student went to high school and whether the student’s parent is an alumnus of the university — in the admissions process.  U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, writing on behalf of the High Court, emphasized that in the context of higher education, and taking into account the First Amendment’s value for academic freedom, the Court had to give some deference to the university’s educational judgment that racial diversity was essential to the university’s educational mission. This claim was bolstered in the Friend of the Court briefs filed by major American businesses such as DaimlerChrysler and General Motors, high-ranking retired officers, and civilian military leaders, emphasizing the importance of diversity in training people to operate in the global marketplace and in fulfilling the military mission. O’Connor went on to point out that universities “represent the training ground for a large number of our nation’s leaders,” and that, “in order to cultivate a set of leaders with legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry, it is necessary that the path to leadership be visibly open to talented and qualified individuals of every race and ethnicity.” At the same time, the Court held that race could be considered as only one of the factors in determining admission, and that it was not constitutionally permissible for a university to use a racial quota that sets aside a number of places for minority students or a point system that gives a large number of points for race or ethnicity. [more]