Supreme Court Rules on Affirmative Action and Student Loan Forgiveness

The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) closed its 2022 – 2023 term by issuing opinions on two cases that impact osteopathic medical education (OME).

• On June 29, 2023, in a 6-3 decision, the justices rejected the race-conscious admissions policies used by Harvard College and the University of North Carolina, finding that the programs violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
• In the ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for himself and five other justices, said that "nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant's discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” He warned that “universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.” Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented and emphasized that the majority’s decision had rolled “back decades of precedent and momentous progress” and “cement[ed] a superficial rule of colorblindness as a constitutional principle in an endemically segregated society.”
• AACOM is planning future conversations with legal experts to help the OME community navigate the implications of this ruling. In the interim, the OME community may view this AACOM-hosted webinar with legal expert Art Coleman held this spring. The American Council on Education also prepared this issue brief reacting to the decision.
• On June 30, 2023, the Court ruled in a 6-3 opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts that the Biden administration’s student-debt forgiveness plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans does not comply with federal law. Roberts invoked the “major questions doctrine” to say that Congress did not specifically give the secretary of education the authority to give borrowers such significant relief. In response, the Biden administration announced new actions to provide debt relief to borrowers. For more information, view the U.S. Department of Education (ED)’s fact sheet on the new plan and a timeline of actions taken on student loans since the COVID-19 pandemic.