Supreme Court rejects quotas but preserves affirmative action in Bakke

The Supreme Court decides Regents of the University of California v. Bakke on June 28, 1978. The Court strikes down a medical school admissions program that reserved seats for minority applicants, but Justice Lewis Powell's controlling opinion says universities may consider race as one factor to pursue educational diversity. The fractured ruling rejects rigid racial quotas while preserving a constitutional path for race-conscious admissions. It shapes affirmative action law for decades. The decision becomes the foundation for later debates over whether efforts to address racial exclusion can use race-conscious tools.