Score One for Chief Justice Roberts

SCOTUS goes 7-1 to further restrict affirmative action:

The Supreme Court drew new limits on colleges’ use of affirmative action on Monday, saying that although racial preferences remain constitutional, they are permissible only if schools can first show that there are “no workable race-neutral alternatives.”

The 7-1 decision written by Justice Anthony Kennedy is likely to subject schools’ affirmative action programs to far tougher scrutiny in the future because schools will be required to show that they have no other way to create a diverse student body. The court stopped short of issuing a broader ruling either cementing or eliminating schools’ ability to take account of an applicant’s race when deciding who to admit.

Instead, Kennedy said that affirmative action remains permissible, but only if the University of Texas at Austin could prove that there was “no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the benefits of educational diversity.”

That’s from the USAToday writeup. For more, go to SCOTUSblog’s liveblog.