The University of California V Bakke, 1978
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Affirmative action has been an issue for many years. Allen Bakke was a 35 year old white male who unfortunately, had to experience this at the University of California in 1978. He had applied to the Medical school in 1973 and 1974 and both times he was rejected. The University of California had two admissions programs – regular and special. The University held 16 slots out of 100 for those under the special program.
Under the special program, the students did not have to meet the 2.5 GPA cutoff and they were not compared to those under the regular program. The special program was only offered to minorities (blacks, Asians, Hispanics, and America Indians). However, no disadvantaged whites were admitted into the special program.
During 4 years at the University 63 minorities had been admitted to the college while only 44 students under the regular program had been admitted. While all of these students were being admitted, Allen Bakke was not accepted even though he had higher test scores than all of the other students admitted. After being rejected, Bakke took his problem to the Supreme Court.
This case caused the Supreme Court to come to a stand still. Four of the Justices felt that admission based on race was not acceptable, while the other four believed there should be racial quotas because it gives disadvantaged kids a chance. Because the court was stuck with 4 against 4, Justice Lewis F. Powell had to make the deciding vote. Justice Powell did agree with both sides, seeing that racial quotas did violate the 14th amendment and also how it was permissible.
In the end, Justice Powell did make the deciding vote to admit Bakke to the University of California. Universities are not allowed to favor students on race itself, but admissions offices can favor students based on legacies and social or economic backgrounds. Even with Bakke’s case, affirmative action is still a touchy subject today and has not been fully eliminated.