Lee Bollinger laments the ruling by America’s Supreme Court against affirmative action 

TWENTY YEARS ago this summer the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on a pivotal case in which I was named as a defendant. In Grutter v Bollinger the court confirmed by a 5-4 majority the view previously expressed by Justice Lewis Powell in Regents of the University of California v Bakke in 1978: that affirmative action in higher education is constitutional under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees “equal protection of the laws” to all. The court permitted American universities, including the University of Michigan, where I then served as president, to use race as one factor among many in a holistic consideration of each applicant. On June 29th the court changed course, in effect declaring affirmative action in higher education illegal.