Universities and colleges in the United States can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, following a highly significant ruling by the supreme court in Washington.
However, US president Joe Biden said afterwards that the court decision cannot be allowed “to be the last word”.
“I strongly, strongly disagree with the court’s decision,” Mr Biden said.
The president said the court in its ruling on Thursday had walked away from decades of precedent and “effectively ended affirmative action in colleges”.
Asked at the White House whether he considered the supreme court was “rogue”, Mr Biden replied: “This is not a normal court.”
However, the supreme court ruling was backed strongly by Republicans.
Former president Donald Trump described the ruling as “a great day for America”.
“People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our country, are finally being rewarded.”
The supreme court decision could reduce the number of students from minority backgrounds at top educational institutions.
Affirmative action has been defended by supporters as a measure aimed at increasing diversity.
The White House said the president wanted colleges and universities, when selecting among qualified applicants, to give serious consideration to the adversities students had overcome, including: the financial means of a student or their family; where a student grew up and went to high school; and personal experiences of hardship or discrimination, including racial discrimination, that a student may have faced.
The ruling came on foot of two challenges brought against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina by a conservative group, Students for Fair Admission.
The group argued the University of North Carolina discriminated against white and Asian Americans and that Harvard was biased against Asian American applicants.
The court ruling followed ideological lines, with conservatives in the majority and liberal members dissenting.
US chief justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said: “The student must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual – not on the basis of race.
“Many universities have for too long done just the opposite.
And in doing so, they have concluded, wrongly, that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the colour of their skin. Our constitutional history does not tolerate that choice.”
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He said that at the same time “nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise”.
Liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor said in a dissenting ruling that the decision “subverts” the constitutional guarantee of equal protection and further entrenches racial inequality in education.
Former US president Barack Obama said affirmative action was not perfect but that “it allowed generations of students like Michelle [his wife] and me to prove we belonged”.
“Now it’s up to all of us to give young people the opportunities they deserve – and help students everywhere benefit from new perspectives.”
Bans on the use of race-conscious admissions policies introduced in some individual states showed they experienced subsequent reductions in the number of students from minority backgrounds.
The share of black students at the University of Michigan, for example, fell from 7 per cent to 4 per cent after the state outlawed such admission policies.
In briefs filed with the supreme court, groups including the Association of American Medical Colleges and the American Medical Association maintained that “states that have banned race-conscious admissions have seen the number of minority medical-school students drop by about 37 per cent”.