Page:Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.pdf/132

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Cite as: 600 U. S. ____ (2023)
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Kavanaugh, J., concurring

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES


Nos. 20–1199 and 21–707


STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC., PETITIONER
20–1199v.20–1199
PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FIRST CIRCUIT

STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC., PETITIONER
21–707v.21–707
UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA, ET AL.

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI BEFORE JUDGMENT TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
[June 29, 2023]

Justice Kavanaugh, concurring.

I join the Court’s opinion in full. I add this concurring opinion to further explain why the Court’s decision today is consistent with and follows from the Court’s equal protection precedents, including the Court’s precedents on race-based affirmative action in higher education.

Ratified in 1868 in the wake of the Civil War, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment provides: “No State shall … deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” U. S. Const., Amdt. 14, §1. In accord with the Fourteenth Amendment’s text and history, this Court considers all racial classifications to be constitutionally suspect. See Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U. S. 306, 326 (2003); Strauder v. West Virginia, 100 U. S. 303,