Affirmative action in university admissions is an issue that has flummoxed the U.S. Supreme Court for nearly 40 years. In 1974, in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke , the court could not produce a majority opinion deciding the constitutionality of this practice.
Nearly 30 years later, in Grutter v. Bollinger , a majority of the court held that diversity among the student population constituted a compelling state interest justifying the consideration of race in university admissions. It was in that same 2003 opinion that then-Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s majority opinion issued an infamously Pollyannaish prediction: “We expect that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.” Sixteen years ahead of schedule, the court appears ready to scale back Grutter, if not completely overrule it, in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin .
From Bakke to Grutter
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