Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 79

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

31 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

tims of past governmental discrimination from so-called be-
nign  race-conscious  measures,  such  as  affirmative  action. 
Croson, 488 U. S., at 504–505; Adarand Constructors, Inc. 
v. Peña, 515 U. S. 200, 226–227 (1995).  To enforce that dis-
tinction, our precedents explicitly require that any attempt
to compensate victims of past governmental discrimination
must  be  concrete  and  traceable  to  the  de  jure  segregated
system, which must have some discrete and continuing dis-
criminatory  effect  that  warrants  a  present  remedy.    See 
United States v. Fordice, 505 U. S. 717, 731 (1992).  Today’s
opinion for the Court reaffirms the need for such a close re-
medial  fit,  hewing  to  the  same  line  we  have  consistently 
drawn.  Ante, at 24–25. 

Without  such  guardrails,  the  Fourteenth  Amendment
would become self-defeating, promising a Nation based on 
the equality ideal but yielding a quota- and caste-ridden so-
ciety  steeped  in  race-based  discrimination.  Even  Grutter 
itself  could  not  tolerate  this  outcome.  It  accordingly  im-
posed a time limit for its race-based regime, observing that 
“ ‘a core  purpose of the Fourteenth Amendment was to  do 
away  with  all  governmentally  imposed  discrimination
based on race.’ ”  539 U. S., at 341–342 (quoting Palmore v. 
Sidoti, 466 U. S. 429, 432 (1984); alterations omitted).

The Court today enforces those limits.  And rightly so.  As 
noted above, both Harvard and UNC have a history of racial 
discrimination.  But,  neither  have  even  attempted  to  ex-
plain  how  their  current  racially  discriminatory  programs
are  even  remotely  traceable  to  their  past  discriminatory
conduct.  Nor could they; the current race-conscious admis-
sions programs take no account of ancestry and, at least for 
Harvard,  likely  have  the  effect  of  discriminating  against 
some of the very same ethnic groups against which Harvard 
previously discriminated (i.e., Jews and those who are not 
part of the white elite).  All the while, Harvard and UNC 
ask us to blind ourselves to the burdens imposed on the mil-
lions  of  innocent  applicants  denied  admission  because  of