Allan Bakke was a 35-year-old white man from California who had twice applied to the UC Davis medical school. After being rejected admission both times, he filed a lawsuit against the university, claiming that he suffered unlawful “reverse discrimination” because of his race. Bakke gave evidence that his test scores and GPA were significantly higher than those of many minority students who were accepted. He charged that the medical school’s admission policy violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
This issue turned into the 1978 landmark case Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. In a fractured 5-4 decision written by Justice Lewis F. Powell, the Supreme Court ruled that fixed racial quotas were unconstitutional because they favored "one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin." The court upheld that universities could still consider race to remedy past discrimination and promote campus diversity. However, an applicant's race has to be one of many factors used to determine admission. By ruling in favor of Bakke, the court pleased whites who felt like they were being unfairly discriminated against. At the same time, the court extended gains for racial minorities by legalizing affirmative action.
As a result of the Bakke case, private and public universities created affirmative action policies to be consistent with the ruling’s requirements. Although this case legalized affirmative action, later cases like Hopwood v. University of Texas Law School (1996) and Gratz v. Bollinger (2003) limited the scope of these programs. It was established that race could not be the preeminent, decisive factor in admissions, even if other factors were also considered. Several US states also banned the use of affirmative action altogether.
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I love how you give a lot of the specifics of the court case and are super thorough with providing both sides of the issue. I definitely see why the ruling was 5-4 because it is a difficult debate. In terms of affirmative action, there is a lot of controversy as well. Some people argue that affirmative action is bad because it makes college admissions not just a meritocracy and brings race into the question. Supporters however argue that affirmative action gives people of color the opportunity to access education they or their families may have been denied for decades. Either way, I don't think that the debate on affirmative action and the ways in which race play in college admissions will ever be resolved.
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