The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the state of Michigan's ban on affirmative action for public college admissions, ruling that the ban did not violate the Constitution.
The controversial ruling sides with a law Michigan voters passed in 2006 that amended the constitution to prevent collages and other institutions from considering race as a factor for admissions and hiring, titled Proposal Two, MLive reported.
That law was overturned by a lower federal court on the basis that it was discriminatory, NBC News reported. In a 6-2 ruling, the Court argued that the ban should not have been set aside. One justice, Elena Kagan, did not participate in the case because she was the U.S. solicitor general when the case was heard by lower courts, MLive reported.
"There is no authority in the Constitution of the United States or in this court's precedents for the judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to the voters," Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, according to NBC News.
"Deliberative debate on sensitive issues such as racial preferences all too often may shade into rancor. But that does not justify removing certain court-determined issues from the voters' reach. Democracy does not presume that some subjects are either too divisive or too profound for public debate."
Administrators at the University of Michigan, who opposed the ban, argued that enrollment of minority students has dwindled because of the law. Black students made up 8.9 percent of undergraduates in 1995. That number decreased to 7 percent in 2006 and went down to 4.6 this year, MLive reported.
"It's impossible to achieve diversity on a regular basis if race cannot be used as one of many factors," Ted Spencer, the university's director of admissions, told MLive.
Dissenting justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was born in the Bronx, has been outspoken about how affirmative action aided in her education.
"We cannot wish away racial inequality," Sotomayor said in her dissent, NBC News reported.
