Skip to main content
Work with the NEU
Affirmative action at US universities under threat
Students walk through the quad outside the student union at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Monday, Oct. 24, 2022.

AFFIRMATIVE action in the United States’ higher education system is under threat, with the right-wing-dominated Supreme Court hearing challenges to the programmes at two top universities.

The court heard challenges on Monday to the long-standing admission programmes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina that use race among a number of factors to help create a diverse student intake.

A number of the right-wing justices expressed their doubts about the practice during hours of legal arguments while the liberal minority defended the programmes, which have been upheld by the Supreme Court in decisions dating back to 1978.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Materialist Left conference
Activism / 5 July 2026
5 July 2026

Socialists, feminists and trade unionists gathered in Manchester to launch a network committed to evidence-based activism with a renewed emphasis on class and collective struggle. ANNA BARRETT reports

warburg
Exhibition Review / 21 October 2025
21 October 2025

KEVIN DONNELLY accepts the invitation to think speculatively in contemplation of representations of people of African descent in our cultural heritage

 Vanessa Shields-Haas, a nurse practitioner, walks from the lobby toward the examination rooms at the Maine Family Planning healthcare facility, July 15, 2025, in Thomaston, Maine
United States / 14 August 2025
14 August 2025