A timeline of Supreme Court cases on affirmative action in college admissions

The Supreme Court has ruled that colleges can consider race as one factor in college admissions, precedent they may overturn in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard.

Kelsey Koberg is an Editor with Fox News Digital. 

The first Supreme Court case dealing with affirmative action came in 1974, when a White man, Marco DeFunis, sued the University of Washington Law School after he was denied admission, saying the school had prioritized minority applicants who were less qualified. He was later admitted to the school, and by the time the case reached the Supreme Court, it was declared moot. 

Just four years later, in 1978, the court again took up the issue of affirmative action, after Alan Bakke was rejected from medical school at the University of California, Davis, which had implemented a quota system for minority students. While the court ruled the quota system did violate the Civil Rights Act, it also established the court’s position on affirmative action, determining that race could be considered in college admissions, but must be narrowly tailored and serve a compelling government interest.