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18  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

1 
After more than a century of government policies enforc-
ing racial segregation by law, society remains highly segre-
gated.  About half of all Latino and Black students attend a 
racially homogeneous school with at least 75% minority stu-
dent enrollment.4  The share of intensely segregated minor-
ity schools (i.e., schools that enroll 90% to 100% racial mi-
norities)  has  sharply  increased.5    To  this  day,  the  U.  S.  
Department of Justice continues to enter into desegregation 
decrees with schools that have failed to “eliminat[e] the ves-
tiges of de jure segregation.” 6 

Moreover,  underrepresented  minority  students  are 
more  likely  to  live  in  poverty  and  attend  schools  with  a 
high concentration of poverty.7  When combined with resi-
dential  segregation  and  school  funding  systems  that  rely 
heavily on local property taxes, this leads to racial minority
students attending schools with fewer resources.  See San 
Antonio Independent School Dist. v. Rodriguez, 411 U. S. 1, 
72–86 (1973) (Marshall, J., dissenting) (noting school fund-
ing disparities that result from local property taxation).8  In 

—————— 

4 See GAO, Report to the Chairman, Committee on Education and La-
bor, House of Representatives, K–12 Education: Student Population Has
Significantly Diversified, but Many Schools Remain Divided Along Ra-
cial, Ethnic, and Economic Lines 13 (GAO–22–104737, June 2022) (here-
inafter GAO Report). 

5 G. Orfield, E. Frankenberg, & J. Ayscue, Harming Our Common Fu-

ture: America’s Segregated Schools 65 Years After Brown 21 (2019). 

6 E.g., Bennett v. Madison Cty. Bd. of Ed., No. 5:63–CV–613 (ND Ala., 
July 5, 2022), ECF Doc. 199, p. 19; id., at 6 (requiring school district to 
ensure “the participation of black students” in advanced courses). 

7 GAO Report 6, 13 (noting that 80% of predominantly Black and La-
tino  schools  have  at  least  75%  of  their  students  eligible  for  free  or 
reduced-price lunch—a proxy for poverty). 

8 See  also  L.  Clark,  Barbed  Wire  Fences:  The  Structural  Violence  of 
Education  Law,  89  U.  Chi.  L. Rev.  499,  502,  512–517  (2022);  Albert 
Shanker Institute, B. Baker, M. DiCarlo, & P. Greene, Segregation and