With the end of June comes the end-of-term for the U.S. Supreme Court, and predictably, the nation’s highest court is out with several high-profile decisions impacting our everyday lives.

Today on the show, we take up the court’s 6-3 decision to invalidate admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, following a pair of lawsuits filed against the universities by the conservative-led group Students for Fair Admissions.

But did the court completely upend the consideration of race in college admissions? Our experts today say not so fast.

We’re joined by constitutional law scholars Reginald Oh and Derek Black for a conversation about what the U.S. Supreme Court actually said on race-conscious affirmative action, and the path forward for higher education.

About the guests: 

Reginald Oh is Professor of Law at Cleveland State University College of Law, where he specializes in research around the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. He wrote about these cases last fall for Washington Monthly.  You can follow him on Twitter @ReginaldOhLaw.

Derek Black is Professor of Law at the University of South Carolina, where he’s the Ernest F. Hollings Chair in Constitutional Law. He’s an expert in education law and policy, educational equality and school funding for disadvantaged students. He’s the author of several books, the most recent of which is Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy (2020, PublicAffairs). You can follow him on Twitter @DerekWBlack.

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