After the news broke about the Supreme Court banning Affirmative Action in higher education, President Joe Biden weighed in on the decision.
“The court has effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions and I strongly, strongly disagree with the court’s decision because affirmative action is so misunderstood,” he said in a statement from The White House.
He went on to clarify that affirmative action is not used to admit unqualified students into college and universities, however the student must meet the requirements of the university’s admissions process before race is considered a factor.
The ruling to strike down affirmative action in higher education comes after the court ruled that the admission programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard University “violated the constitution’s equal protection guarantees by relying on the race of applicants.”
Students for Fair Admission, a conservative group, accused the school of holding Asian-American students to a higher educational standard than their Hispanic and African-American students. They ended up suing both admissions programs.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the conservative (6-3) majority, “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 endpoints. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today,”
This ruling comes as a major setback for many schools and universities across the country. What are your thoughts on this?