Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 41

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

33 

Opinion of the Court 

quotation marks omitted). 

Respondents’ second proffered end point fares no better.
Respondents assert that universities will no longer need to 
engage  in  race-based  admissions  when,  in  their  absence, 
students nevertheless receive the educational benefits of di-
versity.  But as we have already explained, it is not clear 
how  a  court  is  supposed  to  determine  when  stereotypes
have broken down or “productive citizens and leaders” have 
been created.  567 F. Supp. 3d, at 656.  Nor is there any way
to  know  whether  those  goals  would  adequately  be  met  in 
the absence of a race-based admissions program.  As UNC 
itself  acknowledges,  these  “qualitative  standard[s]”  are
“difficult to measure.”  Tr. of Oral Arg. in No. 21–707, at 78; 
but  see  Fisher  II,  579  U. S.,  at  381  (requiring  race-based
admissions programs to operate in a manner that is “suffi-
ciently measurable”).

Third,  respondents  suggest  that  race-based  preferences 
must  be  allowed  to  continue  for  at  least  five  more  years,
based  on  the  Court’s  statement  in  Grutter  that  it  “ex-
pect[ed]  that  25  years  from  now,  the  use  of  racial  prefer-
ences will no longer be necessary.”  539 U. S., at 343.  The 
25-year  mark  articulated  in  Grutter,  however,  reflected 
only that Court’s view that race-based preferences would, 
by 2028, be unnecessary to ensure a requisite level of racial 
diversity on college campuses.  Ibid.  That expectation was
oversold.  Neither  Harvard  nor  UNC  believes  that  race-
based admissions will in fact be unnecessary in five years,
and both universities thus expect to continue using race as 
a  criterion  well  beyond  the  time  limit  that  Grutter  sug-
gested.  See Tr. of Oral Arg. in No. 20–1199, at 84–85; Tr.
of  Oral  Arg.  in  No.  21–707,  at  85–86.  Indeed,  the  high
school applicants that Harvard and UNC will evaluate this 
fall using their race-based admissions systems are expected 
to graduate in 2028—25 years after Grutter was decided. 

Finally, respondents argue that their programs need not 
have  an  end  point  at  all  because  they  frequently  review