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- Ripple effects. The Supreme Court yesterday, as expected, gutted affirmative action in higher education. No longer can colleges and universities consider race as a factor in deciding college admissions.
In the 6-3 decision over college admissions at the University of North Carolina, the court's liberal female justices banded together to dissent. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson authored a dissent in which she argues that the majority fails to see the reality of the world we live in. “With let-them-eat-cake obliviousness, today, the majority pulls the ripcord and announces ‘colorblindness for all’ by legal fiat. But deeming race irrelevant in law does not make it so in life,” Jackson wrote.
In her own dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argues that the decision will "further entrenc[h] racial inequality in education." Colleges are likely to admit more privileged students, white students, and legacy admission students, whose family histories are still allowed to be considered—a loss for qualified applicants who don't fall into those categories and to college communities as a whole.
The ripple effects of those decisions will extend beyond higher education to the workplace. In the near term, companies may experience a chilling effect on their own diversity and inclusion efforts. They may face internal pushback over D&I initiatives and legal challenges over hiring and promotion practices. Corporate efforts are not governed by the Supreme Court's decision, but the outcome may embolden those who seek to attack corporate diversity via other legal avenues.
As Paige McGlauflin and Trey Williams reported for Fortune, some D&I professionals are questioning whether they will soon even be able to use race and ethnicity as an identifier.
In the long term, companies that recruit from elite institutions—already a limited talent pool—will be going after an even less diverse group of graduates. It's on businesses to find broader hiring pools elsewhere, whether that's recruiting more from historically Black colleges and universities or moving toward skills-based hiring and loosening degree requirements for some positions.
As Jackson wrote, the court's decision "condemns our society to never escape the past"—at school and at work.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
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