EXCERPT
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision striking down the discriminatory admissions practices of America’s leading Universities is a direct consequence of Donald Trump’s still-reverberating 2016 election win. Trump’s subsequently-fulfilled promise to put genuine constitutional conservatives on the court has won another symbolic victory, after the court’s historic overturning of Roe v Wade last year.
Unlike Roe, however, it remains to be seen whether or not this decision will substantially alter either admissions practices, the culture of American higher education, or the dynamics of racial politics more broadly. Whilst it is true that on face value this is an important victory for common sense and a fair society, there are three reasons why Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College may prove to be a less consequential decision than we first expect it to be.
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The death of affirmative action is a win to celebrate long into the night. Lest it be a Pyrrhic victory, proponents of sanity in education best swiftly re-arm for the still-raging war at hand. The real work, I think, is yet to commence.
Ben Crocker is a research fellow at Common Sense Society, in Washington, D.C.
Originally published in Spectator Australia.