Analysis of a Supreme Court case

¶ … 1978, the aftermath of the civil rights movement still tore at seams of the status quo of the American social fabric. As the nation came to reckoning with the vast differences in racial progress, perception, and treatment, it was forced to determine a path of choice in treatment. The vast differences between the races of American citizens were never more recognizable than fields of academic success and the corporate worlds from which they stemmed. Like other universities around the country, the University of California stood up to the plate with admissions standards that upheld diversity through affirmative action, but even the best laid plans held fault. Soon, reports of white rejections despite better applications, performance, and academic records circulated across the country. Adam Bakke was one of these rejects; a white application, he applied to medical school at UC-Davis but was repeatedly rejected in favor of diversity applicants whose academic portfolios were not on par with his own. In a U.S. Supreme Court decision that year, the Court held that while the quotas that established affirmative action in the admissions process were illegal, using race as a deciding factor was valid. As a result, they found the University of California, Davis had discriminated against Allan Bakke by maintaining the 16% minority quota that prevented his admission to the medical school.

When the University of California, Davis opened its medical school doors in 1968, the entering class contained 50 students, only 3 of whom were not Caucasian. These three students were Asian, and no other races were represented in the academic ranks. As a result, the admissions office spent the next few years devising an admissions program that fostered the diversity ideals held by the school as important for social progress. While the nation as a whole was concerned with the successful eclosion of the previously segregated intellectuals to the established world of academia, UC-Davis was taking the problem into its own hands. Understanding segregation as wrong, it built upon the foundations previously laid by the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee for equal protection and the civil repercussions of Brown vs. Board of Education to preempt the inherent segregation that exists in the upper crust of intelligentsia. It saw the racial make-up of the school as not one resultant from the natural best of the best of pre-med students, but instead of the heritage of segregation that maintained a glass ceiling throughout different parts of society.

The core of the program established by the school was the reservation of 8 spots for minority applicants out of the total acceptance of 50 students; in 1971, the class size increased two-fold, so did the spots reserved for minorities. To fill the reserved spots, the school created two different admissions processes, one just for minorities. The standard admissions process required a 2.5 GPA for application, an MCAT score of high quality, letters of recommendation, and extra-curriculars to impress. The various factors were wagered together by a committee of five, and from that, a tally of 500 points was weighted and achieved to measure each applicant. At the same time, those who defined themselves as "economically and/or educationally disadvantaged" were allowed greater leniency in their competitive factors, with the minimum GPA requirement entirely ignored. The standards were meant to provide access to the future successes of a UC-Davis education despite previous disadvantage, but were not without flaw.

In 1973 and the following year, Bakke applied to the medical school with a benchmark score of 468 out of 500. Each time he was rejected, as were all students in the regular applicant pool with a score below 470. Yet, four special admissions spots remained, and he was not considered to fill them. Bakke wrote a letter of complaint to the Chairman of the Admissions Committee, complaining about the program's admissions bias, but in 1974, his lowest review in committee was from the same chairman, who cited his opinions as too narrow minded for the UC-Davis standards. In both years, though, Bakke applied with a higher GPA and MCAT score than his special admissions peers. Infuriated, he filed suit with the Superior Court of California seeking an injunction. He claimed that the very program that was meant to overcome the aftermath of institutional prejudice was in fact committing the same crime to him.

The core of his case involved an argument that the medical school's admissions standards undermined the Equal Protection Clause, the California Constitution, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Turning the idea of racial prejudice on its head, the California Supreme Court voted in his favor 8 to 1. The University appealed to the Supreme Court, seeking to maintain its special admissions programs. On June 28, 1978, the Court decided in Bakke's favor, holding that while race can be one of many factors of consideration in the admissions process, it cannot be a deciding factor, and separating minority applicants from the standards expected of the regular admissions pool was unconstitutional and discriminated against standard applicants.