Ban on Affirmative Action: Implications, Risks, and Strategies for the Charitable Sector

How could the Supreme Court ruling on college admissions extend past education to impact nonprofits’ race-based programs?

A pair of recent U.S. Supreme Court cases regarding college admissions standards has potentially wide-ranging implications for all nonprofit organizations that use race as a consideration in their programs. In Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. University of North Carolina, a six-member majority of the Supreme Court held that the use of race as an independent factor in college admissions policies violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.