Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Audrey Anderson shared insight on the Supreme Court’s decision to grant review of the consolidated cases challenging race-conscious admission policies at higher education institutions. The Court consolidated two cases that had been brought by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC).

Speaking to the views in the case, Audrey said the SFFA’s main argument is that the law that has been “governing college admissions since 1978 … that this law is wrong.  [SFFA argues] that the Constitution requires schools to admit students in a color-blind fashion. That the Constitution requires governmental actors and those receiving federal funds to make decisions in a color-blind way and to do anything else really violates the Constitution.”

As Audrey points out, on the other side, the arguments can be made that at the time the Constitution was adopted, the framers had no color-blind intent and that the subsequent passing of the 14th Amendment to protect the rights of African Americans – many of whom were recently coming out of slavery – was intentionally not color-blind supports that “there is room for a limited consideration of race in this aspect of society.”

The full episode, “Breyer Retires and Race in College Admissions,” was released by the Bloomberg Law Podcast on January 27 and is available online or wherever you get your podcast content.

To read more about the update in the case, read Audrey’s analysis, “Supreme Court Grants Review in Race-Conscious Admissions Cases.”