SCOTUS Upholds Race-Conscious Law School Admissions in Grutter v. Bollinger

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 in Grutter v. Bollinger on June 23, 2003, that the University of Michigan Law School's holistic admissions process considering race as one factor among many was constitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's majority opinion affirmed the Bakke diversity rationale and explicitly noted that "race-conscious admissions programs must be limited in time," suggesting the Court expected them to be unnecessary within 25 years. The companion case Gratz v. Bollinger struck Michigan's undergraduate point system as too mechanical.