Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 225

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

17 

JACKSON, J., dissenting 

dividual  circumstances  revealed  in  the  student’s  applica-
tion.”82  Stephen Farmer, the head of UNC’s Office of Un-
dergraduate  Admissions,  confirmed  at  trial  (under  oath)
that UNC’s admissions process operates in this fashion.83 

Thus,  to  be  crystal  clear:  Every  student  who  chooses  to 
disclose his or her race is eligible for such a race-linked plus, 
just as any student who chooses to disclose his or her unu-
sual interests can be credited for what those interests might
add to UNC.  The record supports no intimation to the con-
trary.  Eligibility is just that; a plus is never automatically 
awarded, never considered in numerical terms, and never 
automatically results in an offer of admission.84  There are 
no race-based quotas in UNC’s holistic review process.85  In 
fact, during the admissions cycle, the school prevents any-
one who knows the overall racial makeup of the admitted-
student pool from reading any applications.86 

More  than  that,  every  applicant  is  also  eligible  for  a
diversity-linked plus (beyond race) more generally.87  And, 
notably, UNC understands diversity broadly, including “so-
cioeconomic status, first-generation college status . . . polit-
ical beliefs, religious beliefs . . . diversity of thoughts, expe-
riences, ideas, and talents.”88 

—————— 

82 3 App. 1416 (emphasis added); see also 2 id., at 631–639. 
83 567 F. Supp. 3d, at 591, 595; 2 App. 638 (Farmer, when asked how 
race  could  “b[e]  a  potential  plus”  for  “students  other  than  underrepre-
sented  minority  students,”  pointing  to  a  North  Carolinian  applicant,
originally from Vietnam, who identified as “Asian and Montagnard”); id., 
at  639  (Farmer  stating  that  “the  whole  of  [that  student’s]  background 
was  appealing  to  us  when  we  evaluated  her  applicatio[n],”  and  noting 
how her “story reveals sometimes how hard it is to separate race out from
other things that we know about a student.  That was integral to that 
student’s story.  It was part of our understanding of her, and it played a 
role in our deciding to admit her”). 
84 3 id., at 1416; Rosenberg ¶25. 
85 2 App. 631. 
86 Id., at 636–637, 713. 
87 3 id., at 1416; 2 id., at 699–700. 
88 Id., at 699; see also Rosenberg ¶24.