The United States Supreme Court has declared race-conscious admissions policies at colleges and universities across the U.S. to be unlawful. Thursday’s landmark 6-3 ruling by the court’s conservative majority upends decades of precedent allowing affirmative action in college admissions. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts assailed race-conscious admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina as “elusive,” “imponderable” and “opaque,” ruling they violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment. The court stopped short of barring legacy admissions or ending affirmative action in military academies.

Ketanji Brown Jackson, the court’s first Black woman justice, wrote in a dissenting opinion, “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces 'colorblindness for all' by legal fiat.” After headlines, we’ll host a roundtable discussion on the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.