Admission On Racial Grounds Of The United States Constitution

Background Bakke (Respondent), a white applicant to Davis Medical School, California sued the University, alleging his denial of admission on racial grounds was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution Davis Medical School, California had two admissions programs for incoming class of 100 students, the regular and special admissions program. Under the regular procedure, candidates whose overall undergraduate grade point averages fell below 2.5 on a scale of 4.0 were instantly rejected. One out of six applicants were then given an interview, following which he was rated on a scale of 1 to 100 by each of the committee members (five in 1973 and six in 1974), his rating being†¦show more content†¦Special candidates, however, did not have to meet the 2.5 grade point cutoff and were not categorized against candidates in the general admissions route. The University of California, Davis Medical School reserved 16 spots o ut of 100 in any given class for underprivileged minorities. The respondent, when compared to students admitted under the special admissions program, had more favorable objective indicia of performance, while his race was the only distinguishing characteristic. The respondent sued, alleging that the special admissions program denied him equal protection of laws under the Fourteenth Amendment of the constitution. The special admissions program is unconstitutional, but race may be considered as a factor in the admissions process. Justice Lewis Powell, writing for the court, said that the Supreme Court of the United States would not consider past discrimination in reviewing the policies of the University, as this is synonymous to allowing political trends to dictate constitutional principles. J. Powell determined that tolerating a minimum number of minorities simply to reduce the traditional deficit of such individuals in the medical profession is facially unconstitutional, as it gives preference to an individual on the basis of race alone. The major determination of the Supreme