in a landmark decision the U.S Supreme Court today struck down the use of race in college admissions the affirmative action case involved Harvard and the University of North Carolina the six to three ruling by the court said the admissions policy which gives weight to a potential student's race is unconstitutional reversing a long-standing precedent that's benefited black and Latino students in higher education affirmative action policies were put in place to address Decades of discrimination and increased diversity in college settings but the majority opinion says the programs quote involve racial stereotyping and lack meaningful endpoints the case against Harvard accused the University of discriminating against Asian American students by requiring higher test scores among other factors to limit the numbers accepted well President Biden today had this to say about the decision we cannot let this decision be the last word what if we cannot let this decision be the last word while the court can render a decision it cannot change what America stands for America is an idea an idea unique in the world the implications here are widespread joining me to help explain this decision and what it'll mean moving forward is Kim Mutcherson coding and professor of law at Rutgers Camden Kim it's good to see you first off the bat your reaction to What will of course be a decision that dramatically Alters College admissions across the country yeah I mean I certainly can't say that I am surprised a lot of us in higher education have been watching this case obviously um we know what the makeup is the of the Supreme Court is right now and we know that this is a court that doesn't mind overruling precedent even precedent that's been around for a very very long time so certainly I'm not surprised by the decision that we saw today and a lot of us have been preparing for it for quite some time chief justice Roberts took an unusual step I'll say unusual in actually going further and explaining this decision saying that there's some Nuance really here that schools shouldn't automatically ignore race but should consider it more broadly what does he mean by that well first thing that I'll say is that I think it's a it's it's really confusing um in the way that the court talks about how schools have used race in the past it's been a very very long period of time um when the Supreme Court has told us that you can use race but you cannot have quotas so none of us have had quotas obviously and that it has to be part of a holistic admissions process the second thing though which Justice Roberts I think is saying to us um is that if you have a student whose essay really speaks to their experience as a member of a marginalized community in the United States so a black student who writes an essay um that talks about how race has impacted um that person's life to the extent that that information can be used to convey this is a student who has an enormous amount of grit this is a student who has an enormous amount of perseverance this is a student who has had to overcome substantial substantial obstacles that that would still be allowed but we heard really strong dissent from just Justice Sotomayor Justice katanji Brown Jackson who said that they the the majority was in let them eat cake obliviousness really talking about this country's past and and being in her words you know ignorant to what is still the present basically talking about systemic racism absolutely and I love what Justice Jackson said right so she she talked about uh she wrote history speaks um and I think that that is so important we do not move past what this country has done historically for centuries to people of color particularly people who have histories of being enslaved in this country you don't simply wave a magic wand and all of that disappears you don't simply wave a magic wand in all of the ways in which the pernicious forms of racial discrimination have been used and have been used to to uh hoard opportunity in this country you can't simply write a sentence that makes those things go away right you really have to be able to take the history of this country into account as we think about the kind of future that we want to forge and that I think is what Justice Sotomayor and Justice Jackson are telling us do you think Kim that this is going to build pressure to reshape the advantages that are there for uh Legacy applicants so you know children of alumni um the the very wealthy the connected Etc um because there is a lot of discussion around the fact that the affirmative action is not ending for those people yeah and of course there's been lots of talk about that for a very long time and you do have some schools that have started talking about um getting rid of legacy admissions but you know going back to Justice Sotomayor and Justice Jackson part of what they talk about is the are the many ways in which advantage starts very young in this country so it's not just that your parents and grandparents went to Harvard and so you get you know a thumb on the scales as a legacy admission it's at your parents and grandparents are college educated that that means that they've had particular types of jobs that that means that they've been able to create particular kinds of educational opportunities for you perhaps it means that they got a tutor to help you study for the SATs or they hired an expert to help you write your applications all of that is a part of what makes this talk about oh it should all be about Merit and not about anything else that makes it so foolish right because we know that Merit is often based on um where people are born and who their parents are um and that's not about a skill set right and it's not about hard work it's about that some people get born um you know as as Ann Richards said right some people are born on third base right and think that they hit a triple Kim Mutcherson is the codeine and a law professor at Rutgers Camden Kim thanks so much for your thoughts today thanks for having me