EOTO Board of regents vs. Bakke

 Board of regents vs. Bakke Supreme Court Case

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

   I am here to share with you the Board of regents’ vs Bakke Supreme Court case. This was held due to the Equal Protection Clause of the fourteenth amendment and Title VI (6) of the Civil Right Act of 1964 being violated by a university’s admissions policies that used race as a clear and exclusive basis for admission decisions. 

In this instance, Bakke was a white man who applied to the University of California at Davis' medical school. When he applied, the school had available spots and his admissions score was significantly higher than the typical admittee's, but due of the school's racial quota system, his application was turned down. Prior to this, the school used a quota system in which white applicants could only apply for 84 of the 100 openings, with the remaining 16 openings going to people of color. Bakke filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming that the flagrant racial quota system violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and was unconstitutional. 

For affirmative action in the Bakke case, it determines that race could be considered, but the use of a strict quota system was unconstitutional in college admissions decisions. The University of California Davis School of Medicine in 1970 adopted an affirmative active program to create a dual admissions system to increase the number of students admitted who were educationally “disadvantaged.” To this day the Supreme Court has gone back and forth on the constitutionality of affirmative action.