Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 207.0

68  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

By ending race-conscious college admissions, this Court 
closes the door of opportunity that the Court’s precedents
helped open to young students of every race.  It creates a 
leadership  pipeline  that  is  less  diverse  than  our  increas-
ingly  diverse  society,  reserving  “positions  of  influence,  af-
fluence, and prestige in America” for a predominantly white 
pool of college graduates.  Bakke, 438 U. S., at 401 (opinion 
of  Marshall,  J.).  At  its  core,  today’s  decision  exacerbates
segregation and diminishes the inclusivity of our Nation’s 
institutions  in  service  of  superficial  neutrality  that  pro-
motes indifference to inequality and ignores the reality of 
race. 

* 

* 

* 
True  equality  of  educational  opportunity  in  racially  di-
verse schools is an essential component of the fabric of our 
democratic society.  It is an interest of the highest order and
a foundational requirement for the promotion of equal pro-
tection under the law.  Brown recognized that passive race
neutrality  was  inadequate  to  achieve  the  constitutional
guarantee of racial equality in a Nation where the effects of
segregation  persist.  In  a  society  where  race  continues  to 
matter, there is no constitutional requirement that institu-
tions attempting to remedy their legacies of racial exclusion 
must operate with a blindfold.

Today, this Court overrules decades of precedent and im-
poses a superficial rule of race blindness on the Nation.  The 
devastating  impact  of  this  decision  cannot  be  overstated. 
The majority’s vision of race neutrality will entrench racial 

—————— 
(2022) (noting that from 2005 to 2017, 85% of Supreme Court law clerks 
were  white,  9%  were  Asian  American,  4%  were  Black,  and  1.5%  were 
Latino,  and  about  half  of  all  clerks  during  that  period  graduated  from
two law schools: Harvard and Yale); Brief for American Bar Association 
as Amicus Curiae 25 (noting that more than 85% of lawyers, more than
70% of Article III judges, and more than 80% of state judges in the United
States are white, even though white people represent about 60% of the 
population).