Issue: Whether affirmative action programs regarding undergraduate and law school admissions at the University of Michigan are discriminatory.
In Gratz, the challenge was to a program that granted minority undergraduate applicants a 20-point bonus. It was struck down in an opinion by Chief Justice Rehnquist, who wrote that a program “which automatically distributes 20 points, or one-fifth of the points needed to guarantee admission, to every single ‘underrepresented minority’ applicant solely because of race, is not narrowly tailored to achieve the interest in educational diversity that [university officials] claim justifies their program.”
He was joined by Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Thomas. Justice Stephen G. Breyer joined in the outcome of the case, but not Rehnquist’s reasoning.
Justices Stevens, David H. Souter and Ginsburg dissented.
In Grutter, the challenge was to a law school program that considered race as one factor in making admission decisions. O’Connor, writing for the majority, said the individualized consideration passed muster. “We endorse Justice Powell’s view that student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions.”
But she added: “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” She was joined by Stevens, Souter, Ginsburg and Breyer.
Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy and Thomas dissented. Thomas wrote that, like abolitionist Frederick Douglass, he believed “blacks can achieve in every avenue of American life without the meddling of university administrators.” He said the Constitution does not “tolerate institutional devotion to the status quo in admissions policies when such devotion ripens into racial discrimination.”
