Majority Of Black Americans Approve Of Supreme Court Striking Down Race-Based Admissions

More than half of black Americans approve of the Supreme Court striking down race-based admissions, according to a Tuesday Gallup poll.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that race-based admissions in two separate cases at Harvard and the University of North Carolina (UNC) violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. A new poll revealed that the decision is broadly popular with the American people, with more than two-thirds of Americans saying it was “mostly a good thing” as well as 52% of black Americans, according to Gallup.

Among Americans, 48% of Asian adults say the ruling will have a positive impact, as well as 47% of white adults, according to the poll. Similarly, 45% of Hispanic adults agreed, whereas 33% of black adults said the same thing.

Among Americans, 57% of Asian adults say the ruling will make colleges much less or slightly less diverse, as well as 49% of black adults, according to the poll. Among Hispanic adults, 36% agreed, as did 37% of white adults.

The Biden administration told colleges in August to continue to racially discriminate to make universities more diverse following the ruling. The U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division released guidance encouraging universities to ignore the ruling by weighing “ways a student’s background, including experiences linked to their race, have shaped their lives and the unique contributions they can make to campus.”

Among potential college students, 73% of Asian adults said it would affect which colleges they applied to, as well as 48% of black adults, according to the poll. Among Hispanic adults, 43% of them agreed, as did 39% of white adults.

Several student groups at Harvard decried the Supreme Court taking up the case in 2022, with some saying it would make the university less “diverse,” according to The Harvard Crimson. Former Harvard President Claudine Gay, who had just begun her presidency, said the university was committed to maintaining a “diverse” campus in July 2023, according to the Crimson.

Among black adults, 52% believe it will make it harder for black Americans to apply to universities, and 23% of Asian adults believe it will make applying to colleges harder for Asian Americans, according to the poll. Among Hispanic adults, 34% believe it will be harder for Hispanic Americans to apply to college and 9% of white adults think it will be harder for white Americans to apply to college.

The poll was conducted among 12,443 U.S. adults with a 1.9% margin of error.