California Democrats slammed the Supreme Court’s decision banning affirmative action in college admissions, but Republicans welcomed the change as ensuring race-blind policies.
The ruling will have a limited effect on California’s public universities, because of previous ballot measures prohibiting race-based admissions. But it will extend the ban to private universities like USC and Stanford.
Gov. Gavin Newsom accused a emboldened conservative court of seeking to bring back an era of segregated campuses.
“The Supreme Court’s conservative majority has yet again upended longstanding precedent, changing the law just because they now have the votes to do so, without any care for the costs to society and students around the country,” Newsom said. “No one benefits from ignorance: diverse schools are an essential component of the fabric of our democratic society.”
Sen. Alex Padilla said the ruling “sets us back decades” in creating equal opportunity in higher education.
“The Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action will deepen the racial divide in higher education admissions,” he said. “And that divide will be compounded in workforce and wage disparities.”
But Rep. Michelle Steel, a Republican from Orange County, said affirmative action had discriminated against Asian Americans and the ruling levels the admissions field.
“I am living my American Dream because, in this country, your actions determine your success — not your race and ethnicity,” said Steel, who is an immigrant from Korea. “For 40 years, American colleges and universities have stacked the deck against Asian Americans in the name of diversity.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, who represents East San Diego County, didn’t directly address the ruling, but praised Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion as “an essay of clear, brilliant, and inspiring language. He is a national treasure.”
Thomas, who is Black, said affirmative action “only highlights our racial differences with pernicious effect.”
“We are all equal and should be treated equally,” he said. “We are not all inexorably trapped in a fundamentally racist society.”
USC President Carol Folt called the ruling ruling “very disappointing,” but insisted that it will not affect her university’s commitment to diversity.
“USC has long understood that excellence and diversity are inextricably intertwined,” Folt said. “Each of our students, faculty and staff has earned a place here and contributes to creating one of the most stimulating and creative educational communities in the world.”
“USC provides an outstanding learning community where differing backgrounds and points of view are embraced, where ideas collide, beliefs are challenged and innovation thrives. We will not go backward,” she said.
The ruling held out some hope that a student’s non-academic background could be considered, with Justice John Roberts writing, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.”
City News Service contributed to this article.