June 2023

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, the Supreme Court (6-3) ended race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities on June 29, 2023. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that universities may not consider race as a factor in admissions. Justice Sotomayor's dissent called it a 'tragedy.' In the year following the ruling, Black enrollment fell at several selective universities: MIT's freshman class saw Black enrollment drop from 15% to 5%. The ruling reversed 45 years of precedent established in Regents v. Bakke (1978) and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003).

In Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and UNC, the Supreme Court (6-3) ended race-conscious admissions programs on June 29, 2023. In the year following the ruling, Black enrollment fell at several selective universities: MIT's freshman class saw Black enrollment drop from 15% to 5%. The ruling reversed 45 years of precedent established in Regents v. Bakke (1978) and Grutter v. Bollinger (2003).

In Allen v. Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 on June 8, 2023, that Alabama's congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by packing Black voters into a single district in a state where they constitute 27% of the population. Chief Justice Roberts, joined by Justice Kavanaugh and the three liberal justices, held that the lower court properly applied VRA precedent. Alabama had argued racial vote dilution claims required proof of intentional discrimination, which the Court rejected. The ruling was seen as a significant, unexpected victory for voting rights advocates who feared the Court would gut Section 2 entirely.

In Allen v. Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that Alabama's congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by packing Black voters into a single district in a state where they are 27% of the population. Chief Justice Roberts joined the three liberal justices. The ruling was seen as an unexpected victory for voting rights advocates who feared the Court would gut Section 2 entirely.

California's Reparations Task Force, established under AB 3121 signed in 2020, released its final report in June 2023, recommending total payments of over $1.2 million per eligible Black Californian as compensation for documented harms including redlining, discriminatory policing, and exclusion from the GI Bill. The task force, the first state-level body to complete a comprehensive reparations study, documented $569 billion in housing wealth extracted from Black Californians through discriminatory policies. The California Legislature did not pass direct payment legislation in 2023; Governor Newsom expressed skepticism about payments' feasibility while supporting other elements.

The Supreme Court ends race-conscious college admissions in SFFA v. Harvard.