Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 208.0

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

69 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

segregation  in  higher  education  because  racial  inequality 
will persist so long as it is ignored. 

Notwithstanding this Court’s actions, however, society’s
progress  toward  equality  cannot  be  permanently  halted.
Diversity is now a fundamental American value, housed in
our  varied  and  multicultural  American  community  that
only continues to grow.  The pursuit of racial diversity will 
go on.  Although the Court has stripped out almost all uses
of  race  in  college  admissions,  universities  can  and  should 
continue to use all available tools to meet society’s needs for 
diversity in education.  Despite the Court’s unjustified ex-
ercise of power, the opinion today will serve only to high-
light the Court’s own impotence in the face of an America
whose cries for equality resound.  As has been the case be-
fore in the history of American democracy, “the arc of the
moral universe” will bend toward racial justice despite the 
Court’s efforts today to impede its progress.  Martin Luther 
King “Our God is Marching On!” Speech (Mar. 25, 1965).