Bakke and its Progeny
Court Review of Racial Preferences in Student Admissions
The Regents of the University of California v. Bakke ruling in 1978 launched the contemporary constitutional debate over State-sponsored affirmative action. A "notable lack of unanimity" was evident from the six separate opinions filed in that case. One four-Justice plurality in Bakke voted to strike down as a violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1966 a special admissions program of the University of California at Davis medical school that set aside 16 of 100 positions in each incoming class for minority students, where the institution itself was not shown to have discriminated in the past. Another…
