Republicans celebrate Supreme Court affirmative action decision: Democrats call it a ‘step back’

Republicans are celebrating a return to ‘merit-based’ education admissions while Democrats claim the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn affirmative action will turn back the clock on racial justice.

Former President Trump, who appointed three conservative justices, took delight in the ruling on his Truth Social page: ‘This is a great day for America,’ he wrote. 

‘People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our Country, are finally being rewarded. This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing. It will also keep us competitive with the rest of the world. 

‘Our greatest minds must be cherished and that’s what this wonderful day has brought. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!’

The Obamas had a different take. 

‘Today, my heart breaks for any young person out there who’s wondering what their future holds — and what kinds of chances will be open to them,’ ex-First Lady Michelle Obama said in a statement.

Former President Barack Obama said affirmative action had ‘allowed generations of students like Michelle and me to prove we belonged.’

President Biden called the decision a ‘severe disappointment.’ ‘This is not a normal court,’ he said.  

The justices decided in a 6-3 opinion that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)’s race-based affirmative action admissions policies are unconstitutional. 

The justices decided in a 6-3 opinion that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC)’s race-based affirmative action admissions policies are unconstitutional. 

The ruling ends the decades-old ‘affirmative action’ policy that was designed to boost the number of black and hispanic students in colleges. Now universities will have to look to new ways to better incorporate minority groups and ensure representation among student bodies.

‘Because Harvard’s and UNC’s admissions programs lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points, those admissions programs cannot be reconciled with the guarantees of the Equal Protection Clause,’ states the majority opinion written by Chief Justice John Roberts.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell called the court’s decision ‘illegal social engineering.’

‘The Supreme Court’s decision on college admissions are a long-overdue step toward ensuring equal protection under the law,’ he said in a statement. ‘For decades, the Court turned a blind eye as higher education prioritized illegal social engineering over merit.’ 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries accused the justices of looking to ‘turn back the clock.’ 

‘Right-wing ideologues on the Supreme Court gutted reproductive freedom last year. The very same extremists just obliterated consideration of racial diversity in college admissions. They clearly want to turn back the clock. We will NEVER let that happen,’ he wrote on Twitter. 

‘The Court’s conservative majority just upended nearly 50 years of established precedent in a move that undermines the progress our country has made advancing racial justice,’ Senate Majority Whip and Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said in a statement. 

‘Students of color will face admissions cycles that devalue their lived experience in America.’ 

Rep. Wesley Hunt, one of four black Republicans in the House of Representatives, praised Trump for appointing ‘not one, not two, but three Constitutionalists to the Supreme Court.’ 

‘Our country is strongest when we reward merit,’ said Hunt, R-Texas, in a statement to DailyMail.com. ‘Our nation is at its best when we embrace meritocracy. I applaud the court for its decision.’ 

Roberts added that for too long, colleges within the United States 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. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.’ 

Roberts was joined in the majority opinion by Republican-appointed justices Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. The court’s liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.

‘Today’s decision sets us back more than four decades,’ said Rep. Barbara Lee, a black California Democrat who is currently running for Senate. 

‘As Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said in her dissent, “deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life.” This decision is just another example of the far-right attempting to uphold white supremacy and classism in our institutions.’ 

The universities were sued by Students for Fair Admissions, a conservative nonprofit group, over their race-based admissions policies in 2014, saying they violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The cases made their way through lower courts, which ruled on the side of Harvard and UNC, before reaching the Supreme Court for oral arguments last year.

Specifically, Harvard was accused of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, a landmark piece of legislation first proposed by John F. Kennedy that sought to outlaw racial discrimination. Title VI ‘prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in any program or activity that receives Federal funds or other Federal financial assistance.’

The case argued that Asian American students specifically have been illegally disadvantaged by affirmative action policies because despite achieving high grades, they score lower on Harvard’s vague ‘personal rating scale,’ particularly on ‘likability’ ratings and ‘positive personality,’ compared to other applicants.