Headline Roundup • December 18th, 2024
Black and Hispanic Enrollment at Harvard Law Decline After Affirmative Action Ruling
Summary from the AllSides News Team
In the first Harvard Law class since the Supreme Court overturned race-based affirmative action, black and Hispanic enrollment was cut in half and Asian enrollment increased by a third.
The Numbers: Harvard Law's class of 2027 included 19 black students compared to 43 the previous year—the lowest number since 1965. Hispanic students dropped from 63 to 32, and Asian students increased from 103 to 132. Enrollment numbers for white students also increased.
For Context: A 2023 Supreme Court ruling said that race-based affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina "lack sufficiently focused and measurable objectives warranting the use of race, unavoidably employ race in a negative manner, involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points." Adding that the programs violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.
How the Media Covered It: Fox News (Right bias) quoted those for and against the affirmative action ruling. ABC News (Lean Left bias) described affirmative action as a policy used for decades to "diversify campuses and address issues of inequality," and included a statement by the Harvard Black Law Students Association on the contributions of African Americans to the profession.
Featured Coverage of this Story
The first Harvard Law class admitted into the university since the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action at U.S. colleges last year is significantly less diverse, with a steep decline in Black and Hispanic student enrollment, according to data reported by The Harvard Crimson.
According to the data, which was reported to the American Bar Association, Harvard Law’s J.D. Class of 2027 includes 19 Black students, as opposed to 43 students the previous year – with enrollment dropping by more than half. Enrollment of Hispanic students also steeply declined, with 32 students admitted into...
REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
Black student enrollment at Harvard Law took a nosedive after the Supreme Court ruled against race-based admissions last year.
The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a major ruling on affirmative action in the summer of 2023, rejecting the use of race as a factor in college admissions as a violation of the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
On Monday, the New York Times reported, "Harvard Law enrolled 19 first-year Black students, or 3.4 percent of the class, the lowest number since the 1960s, according to the data from the American Bar Association. Last...
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