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The U.S. Supreme Court, agreed Monday to hear a challenge to the consideration of race in college admissions, adding another blockbuster case such as abortion, guns, religion and COVID-19 already on the docket.
The court said it will take up lawsuits alleging that Harvard University, a private institution, and the University of North Carolina, a state school, discriminate against Asian-American applicants. A decision against the schools could mean the end of affirmative action in college admissions.
Arguments are expected to take place in the fall.
Earlier, the Supreme Court rejected the challenges, citing more than 40 years of high court rulings that allow colleges and universities to consider race in admissions decisions. But colleges and universities must do so in a narrowly tailored way to promote diversity.
The court’s most recent pronouncement was in 2016, in a 4-3 decision upholding the admissions program at the University of Texas against a lawsuit brought by a white woman. But the composition of the court has changed since then, with the addition of three conservative justices who were appointed by then-President Donald Trump.
Two members of that four-justice majority have left the court: justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died in 2020 and justice Anthony Kennedy retired in 2018.
The three opponents in the case, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, remain on the court. Roberts, a moderating influence on some issues, has been a staunch vote to limit the use of race in public programs. He once wrote, “It is a sordid business, dividing us by race. “The court has already heard arguments in cases that could expand gun rights and religious rights and also reverse abortion rights in a direct challenge to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling.
The Biden administration had urged the justices to stay away from the issue, writing in the Harvard case that the lawsuits “cannot justify that extraordinary step” of overturning the 2003 decision.
The Supreme Court has intervened in college admissions several times over more than 40 years. The current dispute dates back to its first major affirmative action case in 1978, when Justice Lewis Powell laid out the rationale for taking race into account even as the court barred the use of racial quotas in admissions.
[Con información de AP y Reuters]
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