US High Court's rejection of race-based admissions setting stage for 'many many years of litigation'
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00:00 U.S. Supreme Court has banned the use of race and ethnicity in university admissions.
00:04 It deals a major blow to a decades-old practice that boosted educational opportunities for
00:08 African Americans and other minorities.
00:11 The justice broke 6-3 along conservative-liberal lines in the decision, which came after years
00:16 of right-wing antipathy to what's been referred to as "affirmative action" programs that have
00:21 sought diversity in school admissions and business and in government hiring.
00:25 One year after overturning the guarantee of a woman's right to have an abortion, the Court's
00:30 conservative majority again demonstrates its readiness to scrap liberal policies set in
00:35 law since the 1960s.
00:38 President Joe Biden said the Supreme Court is "rolling back" years of positive progress.
00:44 In case after case, including recently, just as a few years ago in 2016, the Court has
00:50 affirmed and reaffirmed this view -- that colleges could use race not as a determinative
00:57 factor for admission, but as one of the factors, among many, in deciding who to admit from
01:03 a qualified -- already qualified pool of applicants.
01:06 Today, the Court once again walked away from decades of precedent and make -- as the dissent
01:12 has made clear.
01:14 The dissent states in today's decision, quote, "rolls back decades of precedent and momentous
01:20 progress," end of quote.
01:22 I agree with that statement from the dissents.
01:24 Let's get some analysis.
01:27 Lawyer and former prosecutor Stephen Dreyfus joins us now live.
01:29 Stephen, getting to you, Biden there saying this is rolling back years of progress.
01:34 What's your opinion?
01:35 Well, certainly it rolls back at least 20 years of judicial opinions endorsing the idea
01:45 that ensuring diversity is a compelling state interest that justifies discrimination based
01:54 on race.
01:56 But I think it's important to note that the Court's opinion left an escape clause.
02:01 And at the end, the Court said that we're not saying that you can't consider race at
02:08 all.
02:09 You can consider, quote, "an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her
02:16 life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise," end of quote.
02:22 So what they're basically saying is it has to be an individualized determination.
02:28 And they recognize for the first time that admissions to these highly selective universities
02:33 is really a zero-sum game.
02:36 If somebody is selected for admission simply because of his or her race, it necessarily
02:42 means that somebody else is denied admission simply because of his or her race.
02:49 And that's what the Court is finding improper here.
02:53 But it still will be possible for admissions committees to consider the particular student's
03:01 accomplishments, including overcoming racial discrimination, if that is something that
03:08 that student has encountered.
03:10 I think we're in for many, many years of litigation where disappointed applicants will be challenging
03:17 the decisions of universities, claiming that they violate today's decision.
03:22 And we will have more judicial decisions explaining really what the Court meant.
03:28 This seems, maybe you'll be right if I'm wrong, but this seems to me that it's playing into
03:33 the hands and the political views of a certain right-leaning group within the United States.
03:41 And certainly if you're not white, you might be looking upon this as another slap in the
03:45 face after many, many years of problems, for instance, involving policing.
03:51 Well keep in mind that the plaintiffs in this action, the people that brought the action,
03:55 were largely Asian students who considered that they themselves, a racial minority, have
04:04 been adversely affected by the preference being given to blacks and Hispanics, but principally
04:09 blacks by these admissions policies.
04:12 So it's not just for white students.
04:15 I think the point that the Court is making is that race alone should not be considered.
04:23 Otherwise, as one of the judges pointed out, you could have a very wealthy son or daughter
04:29 of a black investment banker who would get preference because he or she is black over
04:37 a poor first-time college applicant who happened to be white or Asian.
04:45 And the Court says it shouldn't be the color of the skin that counts, it should be the
04:49 accomplishments of the individual.
04:52 How that's fleshed out in future cases remains to be seen.
04:55 Indeed, it seems like a very laudable thing to say.
04:58 We wait and see, of course, how it all shakes down, as you say, Stephen.
05:01 Thank you as ever for shedding light on some of the things perhaps that happen in the States
05:05 that outside it's difficult to really understand why it's happening.
05:09 But you're giving us that real insight.
05:10 We appreciate it.
05:11 Thank you very much indeed, Stephen Dreyfuss there.
05:13 Thank you.
05:14 Thank you, sir.