SFFA v. Harvard College: Closing the Doors of Equality in Education

The United States Supreme Court’s recent combined decision ending affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina was hailed in conservative circles as the beginning of “the long road” towards racial equality. Others declared that “the opinion may begin the restoration of our nation’s constitutional colorblind legal covenant.” Another writer pronounced, “Affirmative action perpetuated racial discrimination. Its end is a huge step forward.” A Washington-based opinion page even declared: “[T]he demise of race-based affirmative action should inspire renewed commitment to the ideal of equal opportunity in America.” Despite these laudatory pronouncements, the decision and celebratory calls are wrongheaded and champion nothing close to equality, or an actual colorblind approach to society for that matter. The SFFA decision held that the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause forbids the consideration of race in college admissions.

The holding, implicitly and explicitly, rests on a vision of equality based on the conservative theory of achieving a colorblind society. As this Article will demonstrate, the embrace of a so-called colorblind society by the members of the Court is one in which endorses a society to continue to provide lessor opportunities for racial minorities. The Court endorses a society that provides a public education system that is not even remotely approaching any notions of equality but can hold illegal efforts seeking to bring us slightly closer to racial equality.