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56  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

as a gauge of [respondents’] ability to enroll students who 
can offer underrepresented perspectives.”  Id., at 383–384. 
By  removing  universities’  ability  to  assess  the  success  of 
their programs, the Court obstructs these institutions’ abil-
ity to meet their diversity goals. 

5 
JUSTICE THOMAS, for his part, offers a multitude of argu-
ments  for  why  race-conscious  college  admissions  policies 
supposedly “burden” racial minorities.  Ante, at 39.  None of 
them has any merit.

He first renews his argument that the use of race in ho-
listic  admissions  leads  to  the  “inevitable”  “underperfor-
mance” by Black and Latino students at elite universities 
“because  they  are  less  academically  prepared  than  the
white and Asian students with whom they must compete.” 
Fisher  I,  570  U. S.,  at  332  (concurring  opinion).    JUSTICE 
THOMAS speaks only for himself.  The Court previously de-
clined  to  adopt  this  so-called  “mismatch”  hypothesis  for 
good  reason:  It  was  debunked  long  ago.    The  decades-old 
“studies”  advanced  by  the  handful  of  authors  upon  whom
JUSTICE THOMAS relies, ante, at 40–41, have “major meth-
odological flaws,” are based on unreliable data, and do not
“meet the basic tenets of rigorous social science research.” 
Brief for Empirical Scholars as Amici Curiae 3, 9–25.  By
contrast, “[m]any social scientists have studied the impact
of  elite educational  institutions  on  student  outcomes,  and 
have found, among other things, that attending a more se-
lective  school  is  associated  with  higher  graduation  rates
and  higher  earnings  for  [underrepresented  minority]  stu-
dents—conclusions directly contrary to mismatch.”  Id., at 
7–9 (collecting studies).  This extensive body of research is 
supported by the most obvious data point available to this 
institution today: The three Justices of color on this Court
graduated from elite universities and law schools with race-