Is Supreme Court About to End Affirmative Action in Education?

The U.S. Supreme Court on Halloween heard oral arguments for a pair of cases in which universities used race as a factor in their admission process, and the looming decision could spell the end of affirmative action in higher education.

Both cases – Students for Fair Admission v. Harvard University and Students for Fair Admission v. the University of North Carolina – challenge the respective institution's race-conscious student admissions policy. Prior cases, beginning with Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, a 1978 landmark decision in which the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action, have allowed for race to be one of several factors in college admission policy.