# Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard The end of race-conscious college admissions, and the legal anchor of the anti-DEI movement. Decided June 29, 2023 — 6–3 in the University of North Carolina case and 6–2 in the Harvard case (Justice [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] recused from Harvard) — *Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard* held that race-conscious admissions programs violate the Equal Protection Clause of the [[Fourteenth Amendment]] (and, for private Harvard, Title VI). Chief Justice [[John Roberts]]'s majority opinion effectively overruled *[[Grutter v. Bollinger]]* (2003), which had permitted the limited use of race to pursue diversity. ## The Holding and the Operator Roberts framed the decision around a "colorblind" reading of the Constitution: admissions programs that use race as a factor lack measurable objectives, employ race in a negative and stereotyping way, and have no logical endpoint. Justice [[Clarence Thomas]]'s concurrence pressed the colorblindness principle furthest; Justices [[Sonia Sotomayor]] and [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] dissented, arguing the majority ignored entrenched inequality and the realities of race in America. The case was engineered by [[Edward Blum]]'s Students for Fair Admissions — the same legal entrepreneur behind *Shelby County v. Holder*. The pattern is consistent with the broader conservative legal project documented in the vault: a repeat-player litigation operation, aligned with the [[Federalist Society]] pipeline, manufacturing test cases to move doctrine in a single direction. ## Significance *SFFA* is the doctrinal foundation of the anti-[[DEI]] legal campaign. After the decision, the "colorblind Constitution" reasoning was rapidly extended beyond admissions — to corporate diversity programs, fellowships, contracting set-asides, and government [[Affirmative Action]] more broadly. It belongs to the same Roberts Court arc as [[Brown v. Board of Education]] inverted: where *Brown* read the Equal Protection Clause to dismantle segregation, *SFFA* reads it to forbid race-conscious remedies for segregation's legacy. It is the keystone of the vault's Anti-DEI cluster. ## See Also - [[Affirmative Action]] — The policy regime *SFFA* ended - [[DEI]] — The broader target of the post-*SFFA* legal campaign - [[Shelby County v. Holder]] — Earlier Edward Blum / SFFA-network case - [[Brown v. Board of Education]] — The Equal Protection precedent *SFFA* reinterprets