UPDATE: In June 2023, the Supreme Court sided with Students for Fair Admissions, overturning affirmative action. Read the full update here.
In December 2021, Speech First, a national membership group of students, alumni, and others that defends free speech on campus, and the Southeastern Legal Foundation filed this amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina. The case challenges UNC’s use of race in admissions.
Speech First has a vital interest in the outcome. The “diversity” rationale for racial preferences was first proposed in Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke (1978), and a majority of the Court embraced it in Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), as a way to promote the “robust exchange of ideas” on campus. But reality has disproved the theory: student speech has come under assault in recent decades. The brief urges the Court to defend free speech on campus by abandoning the charade that racial preferences actually promote First Amendment goals.
Read the full brief below:
