Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf
Page Number: 154

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

15 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

an institution of higher education.”  438 U. S., at 311–315. 
Race could be considered in the college admissions process 
in pursuit of this goal, the plurality explained, if it is one 
factor of many in an applicant’s file, and each applicant re-
ceives individualized review as part of a holistic admissions 
process.  Id., at 316–318. 

Since  Bakke,  the  Court  has  reaffirmed  numerous  times 
the  constitutionality  of  limited  race-conscious  college  ad-
missions.  First,  in  Grutter  v.  Bollinger,  539  U. S.  306 
(2003), a majority of the Court endorsed the Bakke plural-
ity’s “view that student body diversity is a compelling state 
interest that can justify the use of race in university admis-
sions,” 539 U. S., at 325, and held that race may be used in
a narrowly tailored manner to achieve this interest, id., at 
333–344;  see  also  Gratz  v.  Bollinger,  539  U. S.  244,  268 
(2003) (“for the reasons set forth [the same day] in Grutter,” 
rejecting petitioners’ arguments that race can only be con-
sidered in college admissions “to remedy identified discrim-
ination” and that diversity is “ ‘too open-ended, ill-defined, 
and indefinite to constitute a compelling interest’ ”).

Later, in the Fisher litigation, the Court twice reaffirmed
that a limited use of race in college admissions is constitu-
tionally permissible if it satisfies strict scrutiny.  In Fisher 
v. University of Texas at Austin, 570 U. S. 297 (2013) (Fisher 
I),  seven  Members  of  the  Court  concluded  that  the  use  of
race  in  college  admissions  comports  with  the  Fourteenth
Amendment if it “is narrowly tailored to obtain the educa-
tional benefits of diversity.”  Id., at 314, 337.  Several years 
later, in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 579 U. S. 
365, 376 (2016) (Fisher II), the Court upheld the admissions 
program at the University of Texas under this framework. 
Id., at 380–388. 

Bakke,  Grutter,  and  Fisher  are  an  extension  of  Brown’s 
legacy.  Those decisions recognize that “ ‘experience lend[s]
support to the view that the contribution of diversity is sub-
stantial.’ ”    Grutter,  539  U. S.,  at  324  (quoting  Bakke,  438