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Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, 600 U.S. 181 (2023)

Full notes and cites: https://opinion-of-the-court.pages.dev/ep/052-students-for-fair-admissions-v-harvard

Official text (slip opinion, Supreme Court of the United States): https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/22pdf/20-1199_hgdj.pdf

Full text of the opinions, AI-narrated (Kokoro-82M, voice af_heart). Original introduction; opinion text is public domain. Not legal advice.

Students for Fair Admissions, a group founded by Edward Blum, sued Harvard and the University of North Carolina, arguing that their race-conscious admissions programs discriminated against applicants, especially Asian American applicants at Harvard, who received lower "personal" ratings than other groups despite strong academic records.

Chief Justice Roberts, for a six-justice majority, held that both programs violated the Equal Protection Clause, and Title Six of the Civil Rights Act for Harvard. The universities' goals, such as training future leaders and promoting a robust exchange of ideas, were too vague to measure, the programs used race as a negative and relied on racial stereotypes, and they had no logical end point. Universities may still consider an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, so long as the student is treated as an individual.

Justices Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh concurred. Justices Sotomayor and Jackson dissented. Thomas and Jackson, the two Black justices, answered each other directly, in one of the most personal exchanges in the Court's history.

Citations: reporter citations were shortened or left out of the audio; every citation is listed on the website.

Cases named aloud

- Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U.S. 333 (1977) at 343 [as printed: Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Comm’n, 432 U. S. 333, 343 (1977); Opinion of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts)] episode

- Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356 (1886) at 368–369, 373–374 [as printed: Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U. S. 356, 368–369, 373–374 (1886); Opinion of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts)] episode

- Truax v. Raich, 239 U.S. 33 (1915) at 36 (“a native of Austria”) [as printed: Truax v. Raich, 239 U. S. 33, 36 (1915) (“a native of Austria”); Opinion of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts)] (episode link pending)

- Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954) [as printed: Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954); Dissent (Justice Sotomayor)] episode

- Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U.S. 294 (1955) at 301 [as printed: Brown v. Board of Education, 349 U. S. 294, 301 (1955); Dissent (Justice Sotomayor)] (episode link pending)

- Browder v. Gayle, 142 F.Supp. 707 (MD Ala. 1956) at 715 [as printed: Browder v. Gayle, 142 F. Supp. 707, 715 (MD Ala. 1956); Opinion of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts)] (episode link pending)

- Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967) at 8 [as printed: Loving v. Virginia, 388 U. S. 1, 8 (1967); Opinion of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts)] episode

- Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U.S. 1 (1948) (housing covenants) [as printed: Shelley v. Kraemer, 334 U. S. 1 (1948) (housing covenants); Opinion of the Court (Chief Justice Roberts)] episode

(+48 more named aloud; see the website)

Full list of 973 citations not read aloud: https://opinion-of-the-court.pages.dev/ep/052-students-for-fair-admissions-v-harvard