In Landmark Ruling, SCOTUS Strikes Down Affirmative Action

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Happy Friday! Just a heads up that we’ll be OFF on Monday and Tuesday for the July 4th holiday, both here in the newsletter and over on the Mo News podcast.

Here is a handy July 4th day-by-day weekend forecast.

Have a great weekend. Stay cool. Stay safe. And for breaking news, we’ve got you covered over on the Mo News Instagram account.

Mosheh, Jill, & Courtney

🗞 COURT ENDS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

In a 6-3 ruling along ideological lines, the Supreme Court struck down race-based affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard, the nation’s oldest public and private colleges— but the ruling applies to higher education institutions across the country. The ruling invalidates the use of race as a factor in admissions after 45 years.

HOW DID THIS START?
The cases were not exactly the same, but in both, the plaintiffs were Students for Fair Admissions— Asian American students who said the admissions policies at both schools discriminated against them in favor of Black, Hispanic and Native American applicants.

THE DECISION
You can read the 237 pages of decisions (it includes 6 different opinions!) HERE. But these are some of the highlights:

• Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said 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.” In opinions issues as recently as 2003, the Court ruled that their goal was for affirmative action to end within 25 years (by 2028), when they hoped it would no longer be necessary.

• Justice Clarence Thomas, the country’s second-ever Black justice, wrote separately in a concurring opinion that the court “sees the universities’ admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes.”

DISSENTING OPINIONS

• Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the three liberals, wrote that the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.”

• In a separate dissenting opinion, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the bench, called the decision a "tragedy for us all” and that ”deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life."

Note: It is rare for this many opinions to be written for one case, but it is clear that each justice had unique thoughts and interpretations they wanted to share for this historic ruling.

WHAT NOW?
Approximately 40% of US universities and colleges used race as a factor in admissions.

The decision means that institutions of higher education will need to look for new ways to achieve diverse student bodies, like looking at applicant zip codes and poverty & crime rates in those areas. Officials have also suggested using factors like family income or whether parents went to college.

To that end, Roberts wrote that universities can still consider "an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” Translation: Universities can still take an individual’s overall circumstances within the context of race into account. In response, Sotomayor wrote that the suggestion that a student could just write about race in an application essay is “nothing but an attempt to put lipstick on a pig.”

THE IMPACT
The decision appears to have the support of a majority of Americans. A recent national poll released by the Pew Research Center found that half of the country disapproved of using race for college admissions, while a third approved of its continued use.

Higher education experts say, at least in the short term, it’s likely that the student population at the campuses of elite institutions will become whiter and more Asian and less Black and Latino.

The president of Columbia University, Lee Bollinger, says it will likely take some time for colleges to sort this out. He says he expects “five years of chaos” before higher education fully adjusts to the new legal landscape.

There are 9 states that already banned the consideration of race in admissions at public universities: California, Michigan, Washington state, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, New Hampshire and Oklahoma. Looking at the numbers, they saw a drop in enrollment in the states’ leading public universities among Black and Latino students after affirmative action was banned.

POLITICAL REACTIONS

• President Biden slammed the decision, saying this “not a normal court,” and said the Department of Education will look into ways to promote diversity: “The truth is, we all know it, discrimination still exists in America ... today’s decision does not change that.”

  
  Translation: He could be looking to issue some type of executive order when it comes to college admissions.

• Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama weighed in as well:

• Former President Trump and conservatives hailed the decision. He wrote on social media: "People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our Country, are finally being rewarded. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!"

⏳ SPEED READ

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📌 Top Russian general being detained after reported inaction during weekend rebellion (AP)

📌 Chinese balloon used American tech to spy on Americans (WSJ)

📌 France shooting: Unrest spreads over police killing of teen (BBC)

📌 Scot Peterson, Parkland school resource officer, found not-guilty in shooting trial. (USA TODAY)

📌 Schools bring police back to campuses, reversing racial justice decisions (NY TIMES)

📌 Man wanted on Jan 6-related charges arrested in Obama’s DC neighborhood with guns and materials to make explosives (CNN)

📌 House hunting is already tough. Guess what? It’s about to get harder (CNBC)

📌 Madonna too sick to get out of bed, vomiting uncontrollably since hospital release: report (PAGE SIX)

📌 Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney says Bud Light never reached out to her after backlash. "For months now I’ve been scared to leave my house, I’ve been ridiculed in public, I’ve been followed," Mulvaney said in a TikTok. (NBC NEWS)

📌 Grand Slam Champion Caroline Wozniacki Is Returning To Tennis (VOGUE)

📌 The heat is making squirrels ‘sploot’ — a goofy act that signals something serious (NPR)

🎉 CHEERS TO THE FREAKIN’ WEEKEND

• What We’re Watching: Jill: ‘Muscles & Mayhem: An Unauthorized Story of ‘American Gladiators’ on Netflix; Mosheh: Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

• What We’re Reading: Jill: The Fall of Meghan and Harry, Inc. in The Free Press; Mosheh: Winner Sells All: Amazon, Walmart, and the Battle for Our Wallets by Jason Del Ray

• What We’re Eating: Mosheh: Van Leeuwen Ice Cream. To celebrate its 15th anniversary, the company is hiring a Lead Ice Cream Taster to work with the Research & Development Team to talk about their products, discuss potential new flavors, and to eat a lot of ice cream. Jill: Cookie Baked Oatmeal