Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 132

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

1 

KAVANAUGH, J., concurring 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

_________________ 

Nos. 20–1199 and 21–707 
_________________ 

20–1199 

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC., 
PETITIONER 
v. 
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF 
HARVARD COLLEGE 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 
APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT 

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC., 
PETITIONER 
v. 
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, ET AL. 

21–707 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI BEFORE JUDGMENT TO THE UNITED 
STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT 

[June 29, 2023]

 JUSTICE KAVANAUGH, concurring. 
I  join  the  Court’s  opinion  in  full.  I  add  this  concurring
opinion to further explain why the Court’s decision today is 
consistent  with  and  follows  from  the  Court’s  equal
protection precedents, including the Court’s precedents on 
race-based affirmative action in higher education.

Ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War, the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: 
“No State shall . . . deny to any person within its jurisdiction 
the equal protection of the laws.”  U. S. Const., Amdt. 14, 
§1.  In accord with the Fourteenth Amendment’s text and 
history, this Court considers all racial classifications to be 
constitutionally suspect.  See Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 
306, 326 (2003); Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 303,