U of California v. Bakke

Allan Bakke is a caucasian man who applied two tines to University of California Medical School at Davis and was also rejected twice. In the admission process of University of Cali, they reserved sixteen places in each entering class of one hundred for "qualified" minorities. However, Bakke's qualifications like his GPA and test scores were much more higher than the minorities that the school admitted. This is the reason why Bakke first appealed a case in the California courts, then in the Supreme Court, because he was excluded from admission solely on the basis of race.

​

The Decision

The decision was split in half. Five members of the Court voted for University of California to admit Bakke in their medical school. The five judges who voted agreed that the racial selection violated both the Civil Rights Act 1964 and the Equal Protections clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Their conclusion about the case was someone's race should not be the sole base on why University of California admits students. It should be based on the academical potential and success.



Justice Powells stated that “preferring members of any one group for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake.  This the Constitution forbids.” He reasoned that the quota system that relies on admitting specific percentage of spaces to racial or ethnic groups were always unconstitutional. This is because applicants who are not part of the racial group could not participate even though their academic records match the school's standards.



Though Powell acknowledge that certain schools or states look into the applicant's racial background, it should not be the base of why the applicant is going to be admitted or not, "the Constitution does not prohibit any consideration of race in admissions decisions." He understands that the school is just trying to bring in more minority in the school to make it more friendly and for more minority students to pursue a career in medicine. However, Powell states that, "In order to use race as an element in making admissions decisions, a state university must be able to justify the use under the standard of strict scrutiny.  This means that admissions programs that consider race must be narrowly tailored to advance a compelling government interest in order to be constitutional. "



The following are in favor of Bakke:

​

William Brennan

Byron White

Thurgood Marshall

Harry Blackmun



Those who are not in favor:

Warren Burger

Potter Stewart

William H. Rehnquist

John Paul Stevens



Commentary:

Even though I'm part of the minority, I still agree what the judge (Powell) was talking about. Racial background should be a factor and not the soul base on why someone was admitted. It is nice to know what the admission officers were trying to pursue, however it is indeed unfair to the people who had great academical records but was merely rejected because of his or her racial background. I really ended up thinking that who you are can make you or break you. Thinking about it now since I'm applying to colleges, it makes me wonder if there are some percentages that universities needs to fill up to have diversity in their school.