Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf
Page Number: 115

Cite as:  600 U. S. ____ (2023) 

9 

GORSUCH, J., concurring 

award a “tip” or a “plus” to applicants from certain racial
groups but not others.  These tips or plusses are just what 
they sound like—“factors that might tip an applicant into 
[an] admitted class.”  980 F. 3d 157, 170 (CA1 2020).  And 
in a process where applicants compete for a limited pool of 
spots, “[a] tip for one race” necessarily works as “a penalty
against other races.”  Brief for Economists as Amici Curiae 
20.  As  the  trial  court  in  the  Harvard  case  put  it:    “Race 
conscious  admissions  will  always  penalize  to  some  extent 
the groups that are not being advantaged by the process.” 
397 F. Supp. 3d, at 202–203.

Consider how this plays out at Harvard.  In a given year,
the  university’s  undergraduate  program  may  receive
60,000 applications for roughly 1,600 spots.  Tr. of Oral Arg. 
in No. 20–1199, p. 60.  Admissions officers read each appli-
cation  and  rate  students  across  several  categories:    aca-
demic,  extracurricular,  athletic,  school  support,  personal,
and overall.  980 F. 3d, at 167.  Harvard says its admissions
officers “should not” consider race or ethnicity when assign-
ing  the  “personal”  rating.  Id.,  at  169  (internal  quotation 
marks omitted).  But Harvard did not make this instruction 
explicit until after SFFA filed this suit.  Ibid.  And, in any 
event,  Harvard  concedes  that  its  admissions  officers  “can 
and do take an applicant’s race into account when assigning 
an overall rating.”  Ibid. (emphasis added).  At that stage,
the lower courts found, applicants of certain races may re-
ceive a “tip” in their favor.  Ibid. 

The  next  step  in  the  process  is  committee  review.    Re-
gional  subcommittees  may  consider  an  applicant’s  race
when  deciding  whether  to  recommend  admission.  Id.,  at 
169–170.  So, too, may the full admissions committee.  Ibid.  
As the Court explains, that latter committee “discusses the 
relative  breakdown  of  applicants  by  race.”    Ante,  at  2–3. 
And “if at some point in the admissions process it appears
that a group is notably underrepresented or has suffered a
dramatic drop off relative to the prior year, the [committee]