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30  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
Opinion of the Court 

doing so, the university furthers “stereotypes that treat in-
dividuals  as  the  product  of  their  race,  evaluating  their
thoughts and efforts—their very worth as citizens—accord-
ing to a criterion barred to the Government by history and 
the  Constitution.”  Id.,  at  912  (internal  quotation  marks 
omitted).  Such  stereotyping  can  only  “cause[]  continued 
hurt and injury,” Edmonson, 500 U. S., at 631, contrary as 
it is to the “core purpose” of the Equal Protection Clause, 
Palmore, 466 U. S., at 432. 

C 
If all this were not enough, respondents’ admissions pro-
grams also lack a “logical end point.”  Grutter, 539 U. S., at 
342. 

Respondents  and  the Government  first  suggest  that  re-
spondents’ race-based admissions programs will end when, 
in  their  absence,  there  is  “meaningful  representation  and
meaningful diversity” on college campuses.  Tr. of Oral Arg. 
in No. 21–707, at 167.  The metric of meaningful represen-
tation, respondents assert, does not involve any “strict nu-
merical benchmark,” id., at 86; or “precise number or per-
centage,”  id.,  at  167;  or  “specified  percentage,”  Brief  for
Respondent  in  No.  20–1199,  at  38  (internal  quotation
marks omitted).  So what does it involve? 

Numbers all the same.  At Harvard, each full committee 
meeting begins with a discussion of “how the breakdown of
the class compares to the prior year in terms of racial iden-
tities.”  397 F. Supp. 3d, at 146.  And “if at some point in the 
admissions process it appears that a group is notably un-
derrepresented or has suffered a dramatic drop off relative 
to the prior year, the Admissions Committee may decide to 
give  additional  attention  to  applications  from  students
within that group.”  Ibid.; see also id., at 147 (District Court
finding that Harvard uses race to “trac[k] how each class is 
shaping up relative to previous years with an eye towards 
achieving a level of racial diversity”); 2 App. in No. 20–1199,