California Vs Bakke Summary

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The Regents of the University of California v. Bakke supreme court case was decided in 1978. The case was decided by a 5-4 vote and a final decision that the University of California's policy on admission was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court ruled that racial quotas were unconstitutional, but schools could still use affirmative action to bring in minorities.
Allan Bakke applied twice for admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis but he was rejected both times. The university's affirmative action program reserved 16 out of a 100 spaces specifically for minorities in each class of students. Bakke claimed that he was rejected from the university just because he was white. He first went to the California Courts and
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Another primary complaint that Bakke had was that he was rejected only because of his race. The school however, responded by saying that the affirmative action policy was legal and the school was trying to bring in minorities which were very rare in the medical field at the time.
The majority opinion for this case defended Bakke. The five justices agreed that the racial quotas used at the school for admission process was unconstitutional because it was designed to prefer a group of people based on their race solely with no other factors involved. The minority opinion defended the university. The four justices agreed that the use of race as a factor in admission to universities is constitutional.
To wrap it all up, racial quotas are unconstitutional, but affirmative action programs are constitutional if they are used to get rid of discrimination in society and develop diversity so that universities can thrive with the difference in student backgrounds. Since the Supreme Court ruled this case, public and private universities have been using affirmative action programs that are fair due to Bakke’s courage in calling out the flawed admission system at the medical school in California. And due to this decision by the Supreme Court, more universities to this day are choosing to become more diverse because of affirmative action