However, in a companion case involving the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program for undergraduate admission, the Supreme court held that the admission policy was “not narrowly trailered to achieve respondent’ asserted interest in diversity” and therefore violated the Equal protection clause of the fourteenth Amendment. The court again recognised that diversity may be a compelling interest but rejected an affirmative action plan that made race the decisive factor foe revery minimally qualified minority applicant. “The University’s current policy, which automatically distribute 20 points, or one-fifth of the point needed to guarantee admission, to every single underrepresented minority applicant solely because of race, is not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling interest in educational diversity that the respondent claim justifies their program.
the supreme court restated its support for limited affirmative action programs that use race as a “plus” factor a position the court has held since the Bakke case in 1987. But the court has consistently rejected numerical plans or quotas that automatically reject white applicants