Senate GOP Cheers End of 'Un-American' Racial Preferences in Colleges

Senate Republicans across the political spectrum on Thursday cheered the Supreme Court striking down racial preferences in college admissions.

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in the case of Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina and 6-2 in Students for Fair Admissions v. Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College.

The majority opinion, led by conservatives, ruled that “the Harvard and UNC admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause.”

The decision was split between the conservative and liberal justices. Supreme Court Chief Justice wrote the majority opinion, and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson vigorously dissented.

Senate Republicans cheered the landmark victory.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), a Senate Judiciary Committee member who helped confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett, tweeted, “Affirmative action forces colleges to put students into a box. It discredits the hard work and diverse backgrounds that countless applicants have, and requires colleges to value one single characteristic above others.”

“This is wrong and un-American,” she concluded.

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), the chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), said in a written statement:

Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court is also a victory for a civil rights movement built on the belief that discriminating based on race is morally and ethically wrong and runs contrary to the bedrock American principle that we are all created equal. It also rights a grave mistake by institutions of higher education that have been placed more value in political battles than free thought and the wellbeing of students. Harvard and UNC turned away qualified Asian American and white students solely on the basis of race. This should never have been permitted to happen in an America that has fought so hard to put Jim Crow behind us. I commend the Supreme Court for making it right and leveling the playing field so universities must admit students based on their academic achievements and record and not on the color of their skin. [Emphasis added]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a former Supreme Court Solicitor General, said in a written statement:

Today, the Supreme Court upheld the 14^th Amendment rights of Asian-Americans and ruled that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s explicit and egregious policies of racially discriminating against Asian-Americans and other students are unconstitutional. Both Harvard and UNC have had long and ugly traditions of discrimination—Harvard with its anti-Jewish quotas in the 20^thcentury and UNC with racial segregation—that made it impossible for a prospective student to be judged on his or her own merit, rather than their skin color or religious background. These universities eventually ended these forms of overt discrimination, instead substituting them for a different, more subtle form of discrimination in Affirmative Action. Today the Supreme Court has ended our country’s long and failed experiment with racial quotas and government-sanctioned racial discrimination, and, in the process, restored some measure of objectivity and fairness to the college admissions process. This is a great day for all Americans.

Cruz also led an amicus brief on behalf of his fellow senators in these cases.

The cases are Students for Fair Admissions v. Presidents and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, Nos. 20-1199 and 21-707 in the Supreme Court of the United States.