Why affirmative action in American universities had to go
equality under the law was assuaged by the fact that the people who stood to benefit had been oppressed. Yet after 50 years with more racial progress than setbacks, an applicant to America’s top universities with the right skin colour still has a much better chance of getting in than one with identical credentials but the wrong skin colour. On June 29th the Supreme Court ended the scheme.
It was right to do so. That is because affirmative action rested on contorted constitutional logic. It was also unpopular outside progressive circles.
Worst of all, it didn’t work. America’s best universities have never been representative, even with race-based affirmative action. The very same universities favour the children of alumni and donors—a shadow, unjustifiable affirmative-action scheme for the white and wealthy hidden behind the prominent one for black and Hispanic applicants (many of whom were wealthy themselves).
The Supreme Court’s ruling will reverberate widely, encouraging lawsuits to end racial preferences in other areas, such as government contracting. But the immediate impact will be on universities, and the task is to ensure that it is beneficial. Start with the shaky legal justification for race-conscious admissions.
After the civil-rights era, America began to try to live up to its constitutional promise to guarantee all its citizens due process and equal protection under the law. That is why, in 1978, the Supreme Court justified affirmative action not as reparations for a terrible past, but with the argument that diversity promotes “cross-racial understanding and the breaking down of racial stereotypes". It was always odd that affirmative action was crafted for the benefit of black students’ white peers.
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