In 2003, the Supreme Court decided on the consideration of race in college admissions in the cases of Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger.
The court ruled 5-4 in Grutter that educational diversity is a compelling governmental interest that justified the University of Michigan law school’s consideration of race in seeking a “critical mass” of underrepresented minority students. But the court held 6-3 in Gratz that Michigan’s undergraduate system of awarding points toward admission to minority applicants violated the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the law.
"The court clarified that the use of race and considering an applicant needs to be narrowly tailored and a part of a holistic review of that individual student and has to be part of a more careful contextual evaluation,” said Hinger with the ACLU.