The Supreme Court upheld a Michigan law banning colleges from using race as a factor in college admissions.
In a 6-2 ruling, the justices found that a lower court did not have the authority to set aside the law as discriminatory, according to CNN. The state law, which Michigan voters approved in 2006, bans publicly funded colleges and universities from “granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
“This case is not about how the debate about racial preferences should be resolved. It is about who may resolve it,” says Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the first Latina on the Supreme Court, dissented the ruling, along with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
“For members of historically marginalized groups, which rely on the federal courts to protect their constitutional rights, the decision can hardly bolster hope for a vision of democracy that preserves for all the right to participate meaningfully and equally in self-government,” Sotomayor says.
Eight states, including Michigan, ban affirmative action.