Ruling on college admissions could fuel attacks on corporations’ diversity efforts

Federal civil rights law already bars discrimination based on race or skin color in employment decisions, among a list of other protected characteristics like age and a person’s sex or gender.

But for decades the court had extended greater leeway to colleges and universities, on the grounds that bolstering student body diversity enriches the learning experience. Thursday’s decision departs from that thinking, instead ruling that such race-based decisions run afoul of the Constitution’s equal-protection clause.