Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 50.0

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STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 
AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
THOMAS, J., concurring 

and  ushering  in  the  Jim  Crow  era,  the  Court  finally  cor-
rected course in Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 
(1954), announcing that primary schools must either deseg-
regate  with  all  deliberate  speed  or  else  close  their  doors. 
See also Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U. S. 294 (1955) 
(Brown II ).  It then pulled back in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 
U. S.  306  (2003),  permitting  universities  to  discriminate 
based on race in their admissions process (though only tem-
porarily) in order to achieve alleged “educational benefits of 
diversity.”  Id., at 319.  Yet, the Constitution continues to 
embody a simple truth: Two discriminatory wrongs cannot 
make a right. 

I wrote separately in Grutter, explaining that the use of 
race in higher education admissions decisions—regardless 
of whether intended to help or to hurt—violates the Four-
teenth Amendment.  Id., at 351 (opinion concurring in part 
and dissenting in part).  In the decades since, I have repeat-
edly stated that Grutter was wrongly decided and should be 
overruled.  Fisher v. University of Tex. at Austin, 570 U. S. 
297, 315, 328 (2013) (concurring opinion) (Fisher I ); Fisher 
v.  University  of  Tex.  at  Austin,  579  U. S.  365,  389  (2016) 
(dissenting opinion).  Today, and despite a lengthy interreg-
num, the Constitution prevails.

Because the Court today applies genuine strict scrutiny
to the race-conscious admissions policies employed at Har-
vard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) and finds 
that  they  fail  that  searching  review,  I  join  the  majority
opinion in full.  I write separately to offer an originalist de-
fense of the colorblind Constitution; to explain further the
flaws of the Court’s Grutter jurisprudence; to clarify that all
forms of discrimination based on race—including so-called 
affirmative action—are prohibited under the Constitution;
and to emphasize the pernicious effects of all such discrim-
ination.