Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 189.0

50  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

recruit  and  admit  students  from  different  backgrounds
based on all the other factors the Court’s opinion does not, 
and cannot, touch.  Colleges and universities can continue
to consider socioeconomic diversity and to recruit and enroll 
students who are first-generation college applicants or who
speak multiple languages, for example.  Those factors are 
not “interchangeable” with race.  UNC, 567 F. Supp. 3d, at 
643; see, e.g., 2 App. in No. 21–707, at 975–976 (Laura Or-
nelas, a UNC alumna, testifying that her Latina identity,
socioeconomic  status,  and  first-generation  college  status
are all important but different “parts to getting a full pic-
ture”  of  who  she  is  and  how  she  “see[s]  the  world”).    At 
SFFA’s  own  urging,  those  efforts  remain  constitutionally
permissible.  See  Brief  for  Petitioner  81–86  (emphasizing
“race-neutral” alternatives that Harvard and UNC should 
implement, such as those that focus on socioeconomic and
geographic diversity, percentage plans, plans that increase 
community college transfers, and plans that develop part-
nerships with disadvantaged high schools); see also ante, at 
51,  53,  55–56  (THOMAS,  J.,  concurring)  (arguing  universi-
ties  can  consider  “[r]ace-neutral  policies”  similar  to  those 
adopted  in  States  such  as  California  and  Michigan,  and 
that universities can consider “status as a first-generation
college applicant,” “financial means,” and “generational in-
heritance or otherwise”); ante, at 8 (KAVANAUGH, J., concur-
ring) (citing SFFA’s briefs and concluding that universities 
can use “race-neutral” means); ante, at 14, n. 4 (GORSUCH, 
J., concurring) (“recount[ing] what SFFA has argued every 
step of the way” as to “race-neutral tools”).

The Court today also does not adopt SFFA’s suggestion 
that  college  admissions  should  be  a  function  of  academic 
metrics alone.  Using class rank or standardized test scores
as the only admissions criteria would severely undermine
multidimensional  diversity  in  higher  education.    Such  a 
system “would exclude the star athlete or musician whose 
grades suffered because of daily practices and training.  It