Affirmative action ruling

The Supreme Court ruled that race-based affirmative action is unconstitutional discrimination, but left one aspect that applicants of disprivileged demographic background can still cite: "an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise."

Interestingly, one right-wing justice rebuked Harvard for its discrimination in favor of students from extra-privileged backgrounds, those whose families had past association with Harvard. His point was somewhat confused, but there is a valid point to be made: since 43% of white Harvard students benefited from that privilege, eliminating that privilege could achieve, through fairness in process, much of the fairness of outcome that affirmative action has achieved.

Justice Jackson explains why affirmative action is needed to counteract generations of disadvantage which government policies imposed on the blacks of the time, and which today's blacks have more or less inherited.

Biden condemned the decision and said he will seek ways to maintain the effect of affirmative action despite the decision.