have access to wealth, access to opportunity access to power, get rid of the measures that at the end of the day amount to affirmative action for white people. michael, the group that brought these cases, the people who wanted this outcome, what was their argument? their argument was that this was reverse discrimination that this was in violation of the constitution and that you need somehow, in our society, permeated as it is with rates only to have a color blind remedies, they ve been trying to get this result for decades the facts have not changed. the society has not changed except becoming more diverse, what has changed is who is on the court there is now a 60 vote supermajority, very strong conservatives here marching very closely together in lockstep in. that s what has changed and
the courts on the right four years, you are seeing it now among liberals and progressives and democrats. reforms such as term limits, eight year term recognizing that no one should have too much power for too long, or a binding ethics code for the supreme court, these are things that have i think the best chance of actually moving public opinion and bringing some accountability to the court. you heard that president biden is not enthusiastic about court expansion and i think that some of these other things actually have a very wide support among left and right out in the country. jeanne, i want you to hear what senator and presidential candidate tim scott said earlier. one of the things that harvard can do to make that even better is to eliminate any legacy programs where they have preferential treatments for legacy kids. they re looking for ways to improve the footprint of harvard let s make sure that
systemic racial inequality by increasing access to high education for underrepresented minorities and ethnic groups who face systemic barriers in our society and also admissions criteria that capture and magnify the racial bias. and the court s decision today is really a devastating blow to those efforts. debra, affirmative action was already banned in several states including california and michigan, and as a result officials in schools in those states say their student bodies are less diverse today, the universities now have a responsibility to actively do more? absolutely. we saw what happens when states ban race conscious admission programs, in california, seven other states, they banned affirmative action for some time, and we unfortunately saw a significant decrease in black and latino enrollment at
admissions and other things that give unfair advantages to communities of privilege. it s important because maybe one person is more qualified but that s only because they ve been given resources and opportunities. i think it s important to keep that in mind. i hope this is an opportunity for harvard to step up in other efforts, recruitment, but i think it would also be wrong of me to say that i m not scared. students across the country have been reacting to the supreme court s decision to gut affirmative action in higher education. back with us tonight my friend and colleague nbc correspondent antonia hylton she, has been speaking with students all day. antonia, it s summer but there are still kids on campus, you are at harvard, your alma mater, what have you been hearing? that s right, there are still students there, there are lots of high school students who are in camps and programs this summer who were planning to apply to harvard this fall, i got a chance to talk to a lot
affirmative action and college admissions calling the policy on constitutional decision came after a case was brought in front of harvard in the case of north carolina. our reporter has the details. a landmark decision from a bitterly divided supreme court, rejecting the use of race as we know it in college admissions, chief johnson to conclude programs at harvard and the university of north carolina violated the law, riding the schools unavoidably a cloyed race in a negative manner involved racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful and points. the polarizing stigmatizing and on fair jurisprudence that allowed colleges and universities to use a students race and ethnicity as a factor to either admit them or reject them has been overruled. praise there from the architect of the lawsuits, the schools were accused of giving substantial preferences to black and hispanic applicants while discriminating against