thank you so much for joining us. ac 360 starts now. the ruling is seismic. now come the aftershocks. john berman here for anderson. tonight what happens now that the supreme court has gutted affirmative action in a decision that could profoundly change college admissions and more broadly reshape life for millions in this country. also, what we are learning about the arrest in the washington neighborhood where the obamas live of a heavily armed man with materials to make a molotov cocktail who is also wanted in connection with january 6th. plus, what we re learning about a new cooperating witness in the january 6th probe of the former president, and why he could be in a position to now say a lot. first, the supreme court s history-making decision today, dismantling a pillar of affirmative action. specifically, college admissions. in it, the court ruled by a 6-3 margin that race conscious policies at harvard and the university of north carolina violate the 14th amend
if this decision is made in 1996, and nearly three decades later to say the numbers have finally improved with the exception of berkeley, imagine what this is going to look like on the national level. you have to think about the legacy and impact across racial groups and why there are disparities decade after decade despite policies. i could easily walk to classroom and feel like i m someone who doesn t belong here, when that s not the truth, right. reporter: in nia mcclinton graduated from ucla two years ago and now works in black student outreach. without such outreach and funding, sees this. do you feel like a lot of doors were closed for black students in this country? i m worried that they will. so it s important to reach out and say this is something that is attainable for you. reporter: wesley zhou will soon be applying for medical school. he still believes affirmative action doesn t help him, but doesn t see the impact beyond his own academic life. i will say this,
thank you so much for joining us. ac 360 starts now. the ruling is seismic. now come the aftershocks. john berman here for anderson. tonight what happens now that the supreme court has gutted affirmative action in a decision that could profoundly change college admissions and more broadly reshape life for millions in this country. also, what we are learning about the arrest in the washington neighborhood where the obamas live of a heavily armed man with materials to make a molotov cocktail who is also wanted in connection with january 6th. plus, what we re learning about a new cooperating witness in the january 6th probe of the former president, and why he could be in a position to now say a lot. first, the supreme court s history-making decision today, dismantling a pillar of affirmative action. specifically, college admissions. in it, the court ruled by a 6-3 margin that race conscious policies at harvard and the
we want to talk more about tonight about the major shift in how universities will admit students after the 6-3 supreme court decision ending affirmative action in college admissions. earlier we talked about how california ended the practice for its public schools more than 25 years ago. it was the first state the do so. kyung lah has more on what that experience could mean for the rest of the nation. reporter: harvard, yale, columbia. the rejection letters that ended his dream. i m a straight a student, 4.0 gpa, 4.6 weighted gpa. did you get into ivy league schools? i did not. reporter: that was zo when we met him two years ago. this is where we found him today, soon to be a junior at ucla. i think eliminating race in
saying i rarely do this. i rarely speak aloud my separate opinion here. he started off right away complaining about the fate of asian american students who could be excluded based on these practices that have tended over history to favor blacks and hispanic students. and it s so interesting since clarence thomas of course is black. he is only the second african american who has ever sat on the supreme court. but he has always felt that the constitution is, quote, color-blind and that the equal protection clause does not allow any kind of benefit as well as harm from these programs. and finally, probably the most dramatic reading came from justice sonia sotomayor, the first hispanic on the court, who said this decision is profoundly disturbing. it s going to roll back so much progress in america. and her bottom line message, john, was race still matters,