Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College

Facts

Harvard College and the University of North Carolina are highly selective institutions of higher learning that consider race as a factor in undergraduate admissions. Harvard screens each application through a first reader who assigns numerical ratings across categories including academic, extracurricular, and personal criteria, and first readers can and do take race into account in assigning the overall rating. Regional subcommittees and the full forty-member admissions committee also consider race and review racial demographics. In the final stage, known as the lop, the admissions committee further trims the tentative admit list using a roster displaying legacy status, recruited athlete status, financial aid eligibility, and race. Race acts as a determinative tip for a significant percentage of all admitted African American and Hispanic applicants to Harvard. The University of North Carolina similarly reviews applications through readers who assign numerical ratings in categories including academic performance, extracurricular activities, and personal qualities. University readers are required to consider race and ethnicity as one factor and may award a plus based on race. A review committee then approved or rejected each reader's recommendation and could also consider race. In November 2014, Students for Fair Admissions, a voluntary membership organization founded to defend civil rights, brought separate lawsuits challenging both admissions programs. In the North Carolina case it represented four members in particular, high school graduates who were denied admission to the university.

Issues

1. Does a voluntary membership organization have Article III standing to challenge university admissions programs on behalf of its identified members who were denied admission?
2. Are the race-based undergraduate admissions programs used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina lawful under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment?

Holding

The admissions systems at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Equal Protection Clause because their asserted educational benefits are not sufficiently measurable for strict scrutiny, they impermissibly use race as a negative and rely on stereotyping, and they lack meaningful end points. While universities may consider an applicant's discussion of how race affected their life, each applicant must be evaluated as an individual rather than on the basis of race.