Supreme Court Strikes Down Race-Based Admissions at Colleges

The Supreme Court struck down on a 6-3 vote the use of racially discriminatory admissions policies at U.S. colleges. The decision issued on June 29 ends the use of so-called affirmative action in higher education, a longtime goal of conservatives.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote (pdf) that for too long universities have “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.”
But in a footnote, Roberts carved out an exception for military academies. Because military academies did not participate in the case and “none of the courts below addressed the propriety of race-based admissions systems in that context,” the new decision applies only to civilian educational institutions of higher learning, he wrote. The exception appears to suggest the court could in the future consider the use of affirmative action in admissions at military academies….