Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
- Matthew Amend
- Dec 7, 2017
- 2 min read
On Wednesday, November 29th, the final mock trial took place in my first year seminar course. The case being argued was Regents of the University of California v. Bakke. The case took place from 1977 to 1978 and arose when a male white student sued the University of California because he believed that he had been denied from the university only because he was white.
Unfortunately, only one out of the five members of the first litigation team showed up to deliver their argument. Despite it's brevity, the team arguing on Bakke's behalf still managed to construct an effective argument. They argued from a standpoint of ethics and morals and claimed that Bakke had better test scores and grades than other students that were admitted. Bakke had a 3.5 GPA and was a national merit scholar. They believed that Bakke was discriminated against when he was not accepted because he was white. This is because the university had to fill their racial quotas to achieve diversity. The team's final statement was that Bakke's denial from the university violated the equal protection clause due to the fact that the admissions process uses race to determine who is accepted and who is not. They said that the admissions process should treat each student equally and not favor one particular race.
A Photo From A Protest Supporting The Regents Of The University Of California
The second litigation team argued that every student admitted to the university was qualified - even if someone else that applied was more qualified. They also said that the quota was not used to keep students out of the university, but to get underprivileged students in. After that they mentioned that minorities could often not afford to pay for the institution. One advocate for the Regents of The University of California claimed that the university's graduate programs are all white and that African Americans are not prepared to compete against whites in the admissions process. Due to this, a quota is necessary to break the segregation barrier in universities. They also mentioned that race may be a factor in admissions, but it is certainly not the only factor. Lastly, the team shared that only 16% of the seats in the class were held for African American students, and 84% of the seats were open for Bakke.
The end result of the case was one of the most neutral rulings the Supreme Court has ever issued. Quotas were deemed unconstitutional, however, race was allowed to be considered a factor when attempting to promote diversity. In this way, colleges and universities could still take a student's race into consideration when deciding who to admit for the upcoming class.
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