Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 89

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

41 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

and  universities,  the  systematic  mismatching  of  minority 
students begun at the top can mean that such students are 
generally overmatched throughout all levels of higher edu-
cation.”  T. Sowell, Race and Culture 176–177 (1994).8 

These policies may harm even those who succeed academ-
ically.  I have long believed that large racial preferences in
college  admissions  “stamp  [blacks  and  Hispanics]  with  a
badge of inferiority.” Adarand, 515 U. S., at 241 (opinion of 
THOMAS, J.).  They thus “tain[t] the accomplishments of all 
those who are admitted as a result of racial discrimination” 
as well as “all those who are the same race as those admit-
ted as a result of racial discrimination” because “no one can 
distinguish those students from the ones whose race played 
a role in their admission.”  Fisher I, 570 U. S., at 333 (opin-
ion  of  THOMAS,  J.).  Consequently,  “[w]hen  blacks”  and,
now, Hispanics “take positions in the highest places of gov-
ernment, industry, or academia, it is an open question . . . 
whether  their  skin  color  played  a  part  in  their  advance-
ment.”  Grutter, 539 U. S., at 373 (THOMAS, J., concurring). 
“The question itself is the stigma—because either racial dis-
crimination did play a role, in which case the person may 
be  deemed  ‘otherwise  unqualified,’  or  it  did  not,  in  which
case asking the question itself unfairly marks those . . . who 
would succeed without discrimination.”  Ibid. 

—————— 

8 JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR rejects this mismatch theory as “debunked long 
ago,” citing an amicus brief.  Post, at 56.  But, in 2016,  the Journal of 
Economic Literature published a review of mismatch literature—coau-
thored by a critic and a defender of affirmative action—which concluded 
that the evidence for mismatch was “fairly convincing.”  P. Arcidiacono 
& M. Lovenheim, Affirmative Action and the Quality-Fit Tradeoff, 54 J.
Econ. Lit. 3, 20 (Arcidiacono & Lovenheim).  And, of course, if universi-
ties wish to refute the mismatch theory, they need only release the data 
necessary to test its accuracy.  See Brief for Richard Sander as Amicus 
Curiae  16–19  (noting  that  universities  have  been  unwilling  to  provide 
the  necessary  data  concerning  student  admissions  and  outcomes);  ac-
cord, Arcidiacono & Lovenheim 20 (“Our hope is that better datasets soon 
will become available”).