Explained: Affirmative Action And Impact Of US Supreme Court's Ruling

Affirmative action has been banned in the United States following a decision by the Supreme Court on Thursday that the practice of taking race and ethnicity into account during the college admissions process is unconstitutional. The decision deals a major blow to a decades-old practise that boosted educational opportunities for African-Americans and other minorities, ending decades of precedent that had allowed schools nationwide to use such programmes to increase the diversity of their student bodies.

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Here is all the information you need to know about the affirmative action policy:

What is Affirmative Action?

Affirmative action aims to counter historical patterns of prejudice against individuals with certain identities. In the context of higher education, affirmative action typically refers to admissions policies aimed at increasing the number of Black, Hispanic, and other minority students on campus.

Colleges and universities that take race into consideration have said they do so as part of a holistic approach that reviews every aspect of an application, including grades, test scores, and extracurricular activities.

The goal of race-conscious admissions policies is to increase student diversity in order to enhance the educational experience for all students. Schools also employ recruitment programmes and scholarship opportunities intended to boost diversity, but the Supreme Court litigation was focused on admissions.

Which academic institutions take race and ethnicity into account?

While many schools do not disclose details about their admissions processes, taking race into account is more common among selective schools that turn down most of their applicants.

In a 2019 survey by the National Association for College Admission Counselling, about a quarter of schools said race had a "considerable" or "moderate" influence on admissions, while more than half reported that race played no role whatsoever.

Nine states have banned the use of race in admissions policies at public colleges and universities: Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington.

What is at issue in the current litigation?

The Supreme Court decided two cases brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a group headed by Edward Blum, a conservative legal strategist who has spent years fighting affirmative action.

One case contended that Harvard's admissions policy unlawfully discriminates against Asian American applicants. The other asserted that the University of North Carolina unlawfully discriminates against white and Asian American applicants.

The schools rejected those claims, saying race is determinative in only a small number of cases and that barring the practice would result in a significant drop in the number of minority students on campus.

What did the Supreme Court say in the ruling?

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion that while affirmative action was "well-intentioned and implemented in good faith," it could not last forever, and amounted to unconstitutional discrimination against others.

"The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual, not on the basis of race," Roberts wrote.

The court said that universities were free to consider an applicant's background, whether, for example, they grew up experiencing racism, when weighing their application over more academically qualified students.

But deciding primarily based on whether the applicant is white, black, or other is itself racial discrimination, Roberts wrote.

"Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice," he said.

However, the justices broke six to three along conservative-liberal lines in the decision, which came after years of ring-wing antipathy to "affirmative action" programmes that have sought diversity in school admissions and business and government hiring.

(With inputs from agencies)

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