Race-based affirmative action over the past 40 years has helped boost the admissions chances for many traditionally disadvantaged racial minorities. In the case against Harvard, the challengers say those same practices have hurt Asian-American applicants. The advocates who first developed the Harvard and UNC lawsuits in 2014 aspired to an eventual battle at the Supreme Court, where affirmative action has been upheld only through fragile one-vote margins. Harvard has long been a model for racial affirmative action. (The Supreme Court reaffirmed Bakke in the 2003 decision in a University of Michigan law school case, Grutter v. Bollinger .)

Source: CNN January 24, 2022 18:03 UTC