In recent years, the debate over college admissions and
affirmative action has become increasingly contentious. Progressives argue that
affirmative action is necessary for preserving racial diversity in America’s
higher-education institutions. On the other hand, conservatives see affirmative
action as a discriminatory policy that unfairly benefits certain races while
disadvantaging others. Over the last four years, the Trump administration in
particular has expressed a desire to eliminate affirmative action, focusing on
university admissions-related discrimination as a prominent issue on their
political agenda.
On Thursday, November 12, a federal appeals court ruled that
Harvard’s admissions process was within civil rights law and did not
discriminate against Asian-Americans. The case was brought by an
anti-affirmative-action advocacy group named Students for Fair Admissions
(SFFA) with the support of the federal government. With this most recent
development, the case is set to go to the Supreme Court. A majority of legal
experts believe that the Supreme Court will agree to hear the case, especially
since it frames affirmative action in the context of Asian-American rights, as
opposed to cases that have historically claimed discrimination against white
students. If the case does make it to the Supreme Court, the 6-3 conservative
majority (including Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Neil
Gorsuch, all appointed by Trump) means existing affirmative action policies
will likely be significantly limited.
Biden’s presidential win is unlikely to affect how the
Supreme Court will vote. However, there are other methods for his
administration to influence the ongoing legal battle. In addition to the case
against Harvard, the Trump administration has backed several other lawsuits
brought by SFFA against various institutions. On October 8, the Trump
administration also sued Yale University over its admissions policies directly
through the Department of Justice. Once the transition of power is complete,
Biden’s administration will likely withdraw federal support from the SFFA cases
and drop the case against Yale entirely. However, that is far from a guarantee
that the cases will not reach the Supreme Court. Since SFFA is a private
organization, their cases will still exist even without federal support. In the
Yale case, SFFA has already filed a motion to intervene. If the court grants
this motion, even if Biden’s Department of Justice were to drop the case, SFFA
would be able to continue it.
Ultimately, though Biden has options to preserve affirmative action, they seem to be too little too late. The real decision rests on America’s judicial system, and especially the nine justices of the Supreme Court.
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2 comments:
I think that affirmative action is important to the future of the US because as the US becomes more diverse, we need to offer more opportunities to a larger and broader spectrum of people who we wouldn't have offered to before. While I do understand the concerns from Conservatives about affirmative action being discriminatory, it has been shown that affirmative action does not take away education from people who would have gotten it anyways, as it is designed to create more opportunities for people. We can see this in the case you mentioned above, where it was shown that Harvard's Admission process did not discriminate against Asian Americans. The supreme court will probably decide to limit affirmative action, which will likely be a mistake, but since our court is majority conservative there is almost no doubt which way they will vote. You are right about Biden not being able to do much about Affirmative action, and the fact that it lies in the very biased Supreme court right now is scary. Thank you so much for sharing!
Affirmative action is an important mechanism to allow students of lower income and racial minority groups to achieve not only higher education but also working opportunities in order to combat historical oppression and discrimination. Many who oppose affirmative action, however, claim that by considering race, gender, and ethnicity as a factor of admissions, we are wrongfully discriminating against other individuals. While Eric focused a lot on how the Supreme Court can place restrictions on affirmative action, there have already been state efforts such as California's Prop 16 that aim to establish affirmative action by overturning an amendment. Granted, the proposition did fail but being a generally more liberal state, California is representative of the more progressive attitude towards affirmative action.
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