Supreme court could strike blow against affirmative action in Harvard case ruling

Court's conservative supermajority threatens to overturn yet another longstanding precedent as it hears arguments in two cases

Civil rights groups, university professors, teachers unions, current and former US senators, and dozens of corporations on Monday filed amicus briefs to the supreme court advocating for upholding the long-held precedent allowing the use of race to increase diversity in college admissions.

For decades, the court has repeatedly affirmed that colleges and universities can factor in students' race and ethnicity in determining what students are admitted, a process known as affirmative action. But as the US supreme court hears oral arguments this fall in two cases against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), following a historic term in which the court abolished the decades-long right to abortion, the court's conservative supermajority threatens to overturn yet another longstanding precedent.