Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/154

Rh an institution of higher education.” 438 U. S., at 311–315. Race could be considered in the college admissions process in pursuit of this goal, the plurality explained, if it is one factor of many in an applicant’s file, and each applicant receives individualized review as part of a holistic admissions process. Id., at 316–318.

Since Bakke, the Court has reaffirmed numerous times the constitutionality of limited race-conscious college admissions. First, in Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 306 (2003), a majority of the Court endorsed the Bakke plurality’s “view that student body diversity is a compelling state interest that can justify the use of race in university admissions,” 539 U. S., at 325, and held that race may be used in a narrowly tailored manner to achieve this interest, id., at 333–344; see also Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 244, 268 (2003) (“for the reasons set forth [the same day] in Grutter,” rejecting petitioners’ arguments that race can only be considered in college admissions “to remedy identified discrimination” and that diversity is “ ‘too open-ended, ill-defined, and indefinite to constitute a compelling interest’ ”).

Later, in the Fisher litigation, the Court twice reaffirmed that a limited use of race in college admissions is constitutionally permissible if it satisfies strict scrutiny. In Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 570 U. S. 297 (2013) (Fisher I), seven Members of the Court concluded that the use of race in college admissions comports with the Fourteenth Amendment if it “is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity.” Id., at 314, 337. Several years later, in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 579 U. S. 365, 376 (2016) (Fisher II), the Court upheld the admissions program at the University of Texas under this framework. Id., at 380–388.

Bakke, Grutter, and Fisher are an extension of Brown’s legacy. Those decisions recognize that “ ‘experience lend[s] support to the view that the contribution of diversity is substantial.’ ” Grutter, 539 U. S., at 324 (quoting Bakke, 438