Lawmakers, presidential candidates and others are reacting to a landmark ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court on the use of affirmative action in college and university admissions.
In a speech from the White House, President Joe Biden tore into the decision, casting it as a step backward.
But on Thursday, Roberts, writing for the majority, found that Harvard and UNC's "programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points. We have never permitted admissions programs to work in that way, and we will not do so today."
After delivering his remarks, Biden was asked by a reporter if the Supreme Court -- governed by a 6-3 conservative majority -- is a "rogue court," to which he responded that it is not a "normal court."UNC in a statement said that it was disappointed in the decision but reiterated its commitment to diversity in its student body.
Vivek Ramaswamy, another GOP 2024 candidate and a biotech entrepreneur, wrote on social media that "affirmative action is a badly failed experiment: time to put a nail in the coffinMariam Zuhaib/AP "College admissions should be based on merit and applicants should not be judged on their race or ethnicity," he wrote.
"Affirmative action forces colleges to put students into a box. It discredits the hard work and diverse backgrounds that countless applicants have, and requires colleges to value one single characteristic above others. This is wrong and un-American," tweeted Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. Researchers fear the progress made in racial equity in higher education will be reversed, even though they say affirmative action has not been a perfect solution.
"The one thing that really is making me sad, I'll just say today, is that my identity has to be my race, the struggles that I've gone through, the trauma I've gone through as an African American woman in the United States. If I were applying for college today, I would have to write about those traumas in my common app essay.
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