WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - In Media Res: Affirmative Action

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Join Hershey and Stephanie as they discuss the past and recent history of Affirmative Action cases at the Supreme Court.

My name is Hershey and my name is Stephanie and we're your host for MediaRAS, a show where we examine a landmark court case starting from the middle of the action. In today's episode, we'll be covering the most influential Supreme Court cases dealing with the policy of affirmative action. We will try to paint a picture for you of what affirmative action is and how these SCOTUS cases shaped policies in university admissions. The legacy of affirmative action began with two pieces of legislation during the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and an executive. order from Lyndon B. Johnson. The specific term affirmative action originated in executive order 11246. It stated that firms under contract with the federal government ought to take affirmative action to ensure that applicants are employed without regard to their race, creed, color, or national origin. This is a fairly vague statement, but was soon interpreted to mean that federal government agencies

and businesses receiving aid from the federal government, notably public colleges and universities, should actively eliminate any practices that tend to discriminate against employment of minorities. Some organizations began implementing more controversial, positive, affirmative action like racial quota programs. In the early 1970s, a man named Alan Bakke was twice denied admission to the University of California's medical school, partially due to their racial quota program. Bakke's qualifications exceeded those with most other applicants, but the UC Medical School saved 16 out of its 100 spots in each class for minority students. Baki, who was white, argued that he was denied admission solely on the basis of race and that the university's racial quota unfairly favored racial minorities in admission.

This case was decided by the Supreme Court in 1978, which decided 8-1 in favor of Bucky but did not provide one majority opinion. Four of the justices ruled that racial quota systems in admissions and employment were illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Baki was therefore admitted into the UC Davis Medical School. Significantly, however, the four remaining justices ruled that factoring race into admissions decisions was still constitutionally permissible and that schools even had a compelling interest in considering the race of an applicant allowing for further development of affirmative action policies. Two sister cases decided in 2003, Gratz v. Bollinger and Grutter v. Bollinger challenged the admissions policies of the University of Michigan.

On the undergraduate level, students who were both white were denied admission, though they were highly qualified by the university's standards. They contested that this was due to the university's point system, in which students of underrepresented minorities were automatically awarded 20 extra points on their application, which meant the almost automatic acceptance of minorities who met other qualifications. In Grutter v. B. Bollinger, white applicant Barbara Grutter was denied acceptance to the University of Michigan's law school, which took race to be a compelling interest in diversifying. its student body. The Supreme Court ruled against Grutter in her case on the basis that the University of Michigan's law school admission practices were narrowly tailored and individualized enough to prove that race was not a factor in automatic acceptance. Sandra Day O'Connor's opinion mentioned

her belief that affirmative action practices should eventually stop. In the case of undergraduates, Gratz v. Bollinger was decided in favor of the students because admission decisions were less individualized and did not meet the strict scrutiny standards needed for including race as a factor for admissions. This brings us to the most recent landmark affirmative action cases from 2023. Also, sister cases brought against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. Students for Fair Admissions, the petitioning party in both cases, argued that both Harvard and UNC violated the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause by using race as a factor in their admissions process.

The case against Harvard also alleged that the school actively discriminated against Asian and white Americans in admissions. Many listeners may be confused by these accusations, since it was already established in UCVBACI, that race is an acceptable factor in admission processes. But these sister cases brought that holding back into question. The majority decided against these schools, saying that their admission policies did nothing to show their compelling interests in a measurable way, failed to avoid racial stereotypes, and did not offer a logical endpoint for when race-based admissions would cease,

which were all precedents set by UCV. Backey and Gruder v. Bollinger. I'm afraid that's all we have time for on this episode of InMedia Res. We're your host, Hershey and Stephanie. we thank you for joining us, and we'll catch you next time on Radio Free Hillsdale, 101.7 FM.