SCOTUS: Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v President and Fellows of Harvard College, Remarks and Statements

On June 29,2023, the Supreme Court delivered its decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College. The Court held that Harvard College’s admissions system does not comply with the principles of the equal protection clause embodied in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The decision, by a vote of 6–2, reversed the lower court ruling. In writing the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts held that affirmative action in college admissions is unconstitutional. The Court did not decide whether race-based affirmative action can continue in U.S. military academies,^[9] which the solicitor general urged the Court to continue to allow in the government’s amicus brief. The the court also did not rule out race entirely in admission programs, adding, “nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”

REMARKS AND STATEMENTS:

It was only a short time after the Supreme Court announced that it had delivered its decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College that emails and other media containing messages reacting to the decision started appearing. Thinking that readers of this blog might be interested in becoming aware of, and reading, some of these messages, we started our own searching on the web. Some of our searches were general, some more specific. As the search results mounted up into the hundreds, it became clear that time and space made it impossible to tabulate all, or even most, of our search results on this blog. We have therefore resorted to presenting you a relatively short, manageable list that hopefully you will find helpful and enlightening.

The list below contains some remarks and statements from individuals, some are from various types of institutions including universities. and others are more like commentaries.

Remarks by President Biden on the Supreme Court’s Decision on Affirmative Action.

Statement by Vice President Harris

Office of Public Affairs | Attorney General Merrick B. Garland

Statement on Supreme Court’s Ruling in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. (SFFA) v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and SFFA v. University of North Carolina | United States Department of Justice

Secretary Cardona Statement on Supreme Court Ruling on College Affirmative Action Programs | U.S. Department of Education

Senator Markey Statement on Supreme Court Affirmative Action Ruling

Statement on Supreme Court’s Affirmative Action ruling | Office of the President University of Michigan.

Supreme Court Decision – Harvard Admissions Lawsuit Harvard University Response

President Pollack message on Supreme Court decision | Cornell Chronicle

Statement on Today’s Supreme Court Ruling and our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – Georgetown University

Albany Law School statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action | Albany Law School

President’s message regarding Supreme Court ruling on race-conscious university admissions – Stanford Report