race in admissions

On Thursday, the Supreme Court overturned decades of precedent by striking down affirmative action and declaring that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were unlawful.

Adam Liptak, who covers the United States Supreme Court for The New York Times, explains the ruling, and what it means for American society.

Guest: Adam Liptak, who covers the court for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The Supreme Court’s vote to reject affirmative action programs was 6 to 3, with the liberal justices in dissent.
• In 2016, in its last major case on affirmative action in higher education, the Supreme Court upheld an aspect of an idiosyncratic admissions program at the University of Texas at Austin.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

The last Supreme Court term was a blockbuster. The justices made a number of landmark rulings, including in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which ended 50 years of the constitutional right to abortion in the United States.

The new term could be just as testing, with a series of deeply divisive cases on the docket.

Guest: Adam Liptak, a correspondent covering the United States Supreme Court for The New York Times.

Background reading: 

• The six-justice conservative supermajority seems poised to dominate the Supreme Court’s new term as it did the earlier one.

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.