WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down affirmative action in college admissions, declaring race cannot be a factor and forcing institutions of higher education to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies.
The court's conservative majority effectively overturned cases reaching back 45 years in invalidating admissions plans at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, the nation's oldest private and public colleges, respectively.
The decision, like last year's momentous abortion ruling that overturned Roe v. Wade, marked the realization of a long-sought conservative legal goal, this time finding that race-conscious admissions plans violate the Constitution and a law that applies to colleges that receive federal funding, as almost all do.
Those schools will be forced to reshape their admissions practices — especially top schools that are more likely to consider the race of applicants.
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Chief Justice John Roberts said for too long universities "concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual's identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice."
A person protests Thursday outside of the Supreme Court in Washington.
From the White House, President Joe Biden said he "strongly" disagreed with the court's ruling and urged colleges to seek other routes to diversity rather than let the ruling "be the last word."
Besides the conservative-liberal split, the fight over affirmative action showed the gulf between the three justices of color, each of whom wrote separately and vividly about race in America and where the decision might lead.
Conservative Justice Clarence Thomas — the nation's second Black justice, who had long called for an end to affirmative action — wrote that the decision "sees the universities' admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes."
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court's first Latina, wrote in dissent that the decision "rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress."
Both Thomas and Sotomayor, the two justices who have acknowledged affirmative action played a role in their admissions to college and law school, took the unusual step of reading summaries of their opinions aloud in court.
In a separate dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson — the court's first Black female justice — called the decision "truly a tragedy for us all."
Jackson, who sat out the Harvard case because she was a member of an advisory governing board, wrote, "With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life."
The vote was 6-3 in the North Carolina case and 6-2 in the Harvard case. Justice Elena Kagan was the other dissenter.
People protest Thursday outside of the Supreme Court in Washington.
Biden said of the nation's colleges: "They should not abandon their commitment to ensure student bodies of diverse backgrounds and experience that reflect all of America." He said colleges should evaluate "adversity overcome" by candidates.
An applicant for admission still can write about, and colleges can consider, "how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise," Roberts wrote.
But the institutions "may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today," he wrote.
Presidents of many colleges quickly issued statements affirming their commitment to diversity regardless of the court's decision. Many said they were still assessing the impact but would follow federal law.
"Harvard will continue to be a vibrant community whose members come from all walks of life, all over the world," school President Lawrence Bacow said in a statement.
President Reginald DesRoches of Rice University in Houston said he was "greatly disappointed" by the decision but "more resolute than ever" to pursue diversity.
"The law may change, but Rice's commitment to diversity will not," he said in a campus message.
The Supreme Court twice upheld race-conscious college admissions programs in the past 20 years, including as recently as 2016.
Members of the Supreme Court sit for a group portrait Oct. 7 following the addition of Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson at the Supreme Court building in Washington. In front, from left, are Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John Roberts, Associate Justice Samuel Alito and Associate Justice Elena Kagan. In back, from left, are Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
That was before the three appointees of former President Donald Trump joined the court. At arguments in late October, all six conservative justices expressed doubts about the practice, which was upheld under Supreme Court decisions reaching back to 1978.
Lower courts also upheld the programs at both UNC and Harvard, rejecting claims that the schools discriminated against white and Asian American applicants.
The college admissions disputes were among several high-profile cases focused on race in America.
The justices decided a voting rights case in June in favor of Black voters in Alabama and rejected a race-based challenge to a Native American child protection law.
The affirmative action cases were brought by conservative activist Edward Blum, who also was behind an earlier challenge against the University of Texas as well as the case that led the court in 2013 to end use of a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act.
