It’s the 12 Days of Ballotpedia! Your gift powers the trusted, unbiased information voters need heading into 2026. Donate now!
Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina
Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina was filed in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on November 17, 2014. The complaint was filed by the nonprofit membership group Students for Fair Admissions with financing from the Project on Fair Representation, a legal defense fund that says it is focused on ending racial and ethnic classifications and preferences by governments. The group claimed that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's policy of considering race in admissions violated anti-discrimination laws and the 14th Amendment.[1][2][3]
In October 2021, a North Carolina district court ruled in favor of UNC-Chapel Hill, concluding that the university’s admissions process was in compliance with federal law and previous judicial precedents. The Students for Fair Admissions appealed the trial court decision and also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case without conventional appellate review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The Supreme Court heard both the Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College cases in their 2022–2023 term.[4][5]
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court reversed the lower court's decision and ruled in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., in a 6-3 decision. The ruling effectively ended race-based considerations in college admission, but explicitly allowed national service academies to continue considering race as a factor in admissions for reasons of national security.[6][7]
Case details
| Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | |
 | |
| Court: | U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina |
| Text: | Text of complaint, Docket activity |
| Case history | |
| Filed: | November 17, 2014 |
| Trial court: | U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina |
In April 2014, former investment broker Edward Blum and his Project on Fair Representation launched UNC Not Fair, a website intended to draw students who felt they had been rejected from the university because of their race. The website, along with two others for Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was launched in the wake of the Supreme Court decision in Fisher v. University of Texas, which placed a heavier burden on universities that use racial preferences to prove that the preferences are individualized and necessary. The website asked students who were denied admission to submit their information and join Students for Fair Admissions, a membership organization also started by Blum to try to end racial classifications and preferences. On November 17, 2014, Students for Fair Admissions filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina on behalf of an anonymous white student who was denied admission to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-Chapel Hill).[8][9][10]
The complaint accused the university of violating the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by considering race in admissions. The plaintiff contended that the policy amounted to intentional racial and ethnic discrimination against the members of Students for Fair Admissions. The complaint stated that contrary to the United States Supreme Court's belief that universities across the country have been considering race on a highly individualized and narrowly applied basis, UNC-Chapel Hill has been labeling the race of every applicant and using such large preferences for underrepresented minorities that race was a dominant factor of each application.[9][11][12][13]
The complaint contended that such a policy resulted in disparate treatment for high-achieving Asian-American and white applicants and injured the members of Students for Fair Admissions. Furthermore, the complaint stated, such a policy was inexcusable in light of the ability of other elite universities to achieve diversity using race-neutral alternatives such as socioeconomic preferences, greater financial aid and the elimination of legacy preferences. In particular, the complaint cited a study conducted by UNC-Chapel Hill that found it would see higher enrollment of underrepresented minorities if it ended its use of preferences and instead admitted all high school seniors finishing in the top ten percent of their class. The school has not implemented this plan due to concern it would cause a drop of 56 points in its average SAT scores, and thus a drop in its ranking as an elite institution. For these reasons, the plaintiffs have sought an "outright prohibition of racial preferences in university admissions."[9][11][12][13]
UNC-Chapel Hill rejected the claims, stating that its policy is legal and that diversity is important to the educational quality of its institution. According to a public statement by the university, "The University stands by its current undergraduate admissions policy and process. Further, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights determined in 2012 that UNC-Chapel Hill's use of race in the admissions process is consistent with federal law."[9][12]
Lower courts
In October 2021, a North Carolina district court ruled in favor of UNC-Chapel Hill after an eight-day trial. The court issued a 155-page opinion that concluded the university’s admissions process was in compliance with federal law and previous judicial precedents.[4]
The Students for Fair Admissions appealed the trial court decision. They also petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case without conventional appellate review by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.[4]
The Supreme Court
The Students for Fair Admissions petitioned the Supreme Court to review the circuit court decisions in both the UNC-Chapel Hill case and a similar case called Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College that focused on the impact of racial admissions policies on Asian American applicants at Harvard. (The Harvard case was decided in the College’s favor in October 2019.) The petitions for both cases requested the Supreme Court to overturn its precedents from the Grutter v. Bollinger case, which was decided in 2003.[14]
The Biden administration’s solicitor general urged the Supreme Court to reject the Students for Fair Admissions petition in December 2021.[15]
The Supreme Court accepted and consolidated the Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina cases on January 24, 2022, with the expectation of hearing the combined case in their 2022–2023 term.[16]
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson testified during her confirmation hearing that she would recuse herself from hearing the combined case because of her position on the Harvard Board of Overseers. The Supreme Court then separated the two cases again in order to allow Justice Jackson to participate in the University of North Carolina case.[17]
On June 29, 2023, the court the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in a 6-3 decision, significantly limiting the consideration of race in college admissions. In the majority opinion, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that, "... the student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual—not on the basis of race. Many universities have for too long done just the opposite. And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned but the color of their skin."[18] In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sotomayor wrote that in ruling in favor of the plaintiffs, "the Court cements a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society where race has always mattered and continues to matter. The Court subverts the constitutional guarantee of equal protection by further entrenching racial inequality in education, the very foundation of our democratic government and pluralistic society."[18]
Recent news
The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Affirmative action UNC. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.
See also
- Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College
- Affirmative action in North Carolina
- Affirmative action
- Fisher v. University of Texas
- Higher education in North Carolina
External links
- Text of complaint
- Docket activity
- Students for Fair Admissions
- Project on Fair Representation
- UNC Not Fair
Footnotes
- ↑ Project on Fair Representation, accessed May 26, 2015
- ↑ Students for Fair Admissions, "About," accessed May 26, 2015
- ↑ Justia, "Students For Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina et al.," accessed May 27, 2015
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Admissions case," accessed August 2, 2022
- ↑ Reuters, “Supreme Court Will Hear Challenge to Affirmative Action at Harvard and U.N.C.,” August 3, 2022
- ↑ AP News, "Divided Supreme Court outlaws affirmative action in college admissions, says race can’t be used," accessed June 29, 2023
- ↑ SCOTUSblog, "Supreme Court strikes down affirmative action programs in college admissions," accessed June 29, 2023
- ↑ The New York Times, "Unofficial Enforcer of Ruling on Race in College Admissions," April 7, 2015
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 NPR, "New Affirmative Action Cases Say Policies Hurt Asian-Americans," November 20, 2014
- ↑ The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Not Fair, accessed May 27, 2015
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Students for Fair Admissions, "Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. UNC Complaint," accessed May 27, 2015
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 The Daily Tar Heel, "Lawsuit calls UNC admissions practices unfair," November 18, 2014
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 SCOTUSblog, "Direct new challenges to Bakke ruling (FURTHER UPDATE)," November 17, 2014
- ↑ The Harvard Crimson, “Students for Fair Admissions Petitions SCOTUS to Take Up Suit Against Harvard’s Race-Conscious Admissions,” August 3, 2022
- ↑ Reuters, “Biden administration asks U.S. Supreme Court to reject Harvard affirmative action case,” August 3, 2022
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namednyt2 - ↑ SCOTUSblog, “Court will hear affirmative-action challenges separately, allowing Jackson to participate in UNC case,” August 3, 2022
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Supreme Court of the United States, "Students for Fair Admission, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College," accessed June 29, 2023
