Former President Donald Trump hailed the Supreme Court’s decision prohibiting colleges’ and universities’ from considering race in their admissions, calling the ruling an “amazing” result that will “keep [the U.S.] competitive with the rest of the world.”
Republican presidential candidate, former U.S. President Donald Trump raises his fist at the end of ... [+]
“This is a great day for America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding “we’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!”
Trump made the comments hours after the conservative-majority court ruled that Harvard University and the University of North Carolina’s policies of taking race into account in their admissions processes violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection clause.
Trump’s 2024 GOP presidential competitors joined him in lauding the decision: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the Supreme Court “correctly upheld the Constitution and ended discrimination,” former Vice President Mike Pence called affirmative action an “egregious violation of civil and constitutional rights” and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said it was “a good day for America” in an interview with Fox News.
Trump previously credited himself with the court’s overturning of the constitutional right to abortion when it struck down Roe v. Wade, in what is widely viewed as the court’s most controversial ruling in recent history. Trump appointed three of the justices—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett—who tipped the scales of power on the court to lean more conservative. “Today’s decision, which is the biggest WIN for LIFE in a generation, along with other decisions that have been announced recently, were only made possible because I delivered everything as promised,” he said in a statement on June 24 last year, the day the ruling was issued.
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday in favor of the Students for Fair Admissions, which argued Harvard and UNC’s admissions policies violated the Fourteenth Amendment and led to a lower acceptance rate among white and Asian-American students. The court ruled 6-3 against UNC’s policy, with liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissenting, and 6-2 in Harvard’s case, which Jackson recused herself from. The court found the schools failed to provide adequate reasoning for incorporating race into their admissions decisions, determining it was a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which states that “race may never be used as a ‘negative’” and “may not operate as a stereotype.” Harvard and UNC argued their policies were in line with previous rulings upholding affirmative action, warning that doing away with the practice would result in a decline in enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
Democrats widely rebuked the ruling, with many raising concerns that it would lead to a decline in diversity at colleges and universities and upended previous rulings that affirmed race could be considered in admissions decisions. “I strongly, strongly disagree with the court’s decision,” President Joe Biden said, adding “today the court once again walked away from decades of precedent.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) called the decision “misguided” in a statement that said it “reminds us how far we still have to go to ensure that all Americans are treated equally.”
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