Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_l6gn.pdf
Page Number: 202

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

63 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

colleges and universities, turning the clock back and undo-
ing the slow yet significant progress already achieved.  See 
Schuette, 572 U. S., at 384–390 (SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting) 
(collecting statistics from States that have banned the use 
of  race  in  college  admissions);  see  also  Amherst  Brief  13 
(noting  that  eliminating  the  use  of  race  in  college  admis-
sions will take Black student enrollment at elite universi-
ties back to levels this country saw in the early 1960s).

After  California  amended  its  State  Constitution  to  pro-
hibit race-conscious college admissions in 1996, for exam-
ple,  “freshmen  enrollees  from  underrepresented  minority
groups dropped precipitously” in California public universi-
ties.  Brief for President and Chancellors of the University
of California as Amici Curiae 4, 9, 11–13.  The decline was 
particularly devastating at California’s most selective cam-
puses,  where  the  rates  of  admission  of  underrepresented 
groups “dropped by 50% or more.” Id., at 4, 12.  At the Uni-
versity of California, Berkeley, a top public university not 
just  in  California  but  also  nationally,  the  percentage  of 
Black students in the freshman class dropped from 6.32% 
in 1995 to 3.37% in 1998.  Id., at 12–13.  Latino representa-
tion  similarly  dropped  from  15.57%  to  7.28%  during  that
period at Berkeley, even though Latinos represented 31% 
of California public high school graduates.  Id., at 13.  To 
this day, the student population at California universities 
still “reflect[s] a persistent inability to increase opportuni-
ties”  for  all  racial  groups.  Id.,  at  23.  For  example,  as  of 
2019,  the  proportion  of  Black  freshmen  at  Berkeley  was 
2.76%, well below the pre-constitutional amendment level
in 1996, which was 6.32%.  Ibid.  Latinos composed about
15% of freshmen students at Berkeley in 2019, despite mak-
ing up 52% of all California public high school graduates. 
Id., at 24; see also Brief for University of Michigan as Ami-
cus Curiae 21–24 (noting similar trends at the University 
of  Michigan  from  2006,  the  last  admissions  cycle  before 
Michigan’s  ban  on  race-conscious  admissions  took  effect,