In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court has limited affirmative action, sending the case back to lower courts to be reconsidered.

The majority opinion ruled that lower courts did not closely examine the University of Texas’ admissions process, which requires the university to prove that admissions applicants are evaluated without ethnicity as a defining factor of their application, according to the Supreme Court’s official opinion.

The requirement of strict scrutiny comes from the 2003 Supreme Court decision involving the University of Michigan, which allowed public colleges and universities to consider race in applications. Syracuse University chancellor Nancy Cantor was provost of the University of Michigan during 2003 and assisted in building the school’s case.

“The reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity,” the document states.

The Supreme Court is returning the case back to the federal appeals court for review and are requesting that the judges apply strict scrutiny to the racial aspects of the application process.

Ten years later, the Supreme Court’s decision continues to allow affirmative action, but limits how it can be applied. By sending the decision back down to the appellate courts, it is implied that their courts will strike down the University of Texas’ affirmative action criteria, but have little effect across the country, said Thomas Keck, constitutional law and politics chair in the political science department at SU.

“The goal is still allowed, but they’re signaling to courts that they should be more skeptical of a university’s affirmative action policies,” he said. “But there are other policies that are different from Texas’, which will be upheld.”

Keck said he predicts an incremental movement by the Supreme Court against affirmative action, with this decision setting the tone for the future.

Published on June 24, 2013 at 4:50 pm

Contact Alfred: alng@syr.edu

@alfredwkng