Sotomayor, J., dissenting
colleges and universities, turning the clock back and undoing the slow yet significant progress already achieved. See Schuette, 572 U. S., at 384–390 (Sotomayor, J., dissenting) (collecting statistics from States that have banned the use of race in college admissions); see also Amherst Brief 13 (noting that eliminating the use of race in college admissions will take Black student enrollment at elite universities back to levels this country saw in the early 1960s).
After California amended its State Constitution to prohibit race-conscious college admissions in 1996, for example, “freshmen enrollees from underrepresented minority groups dropped precipitously” in California public universities. Brief for President and Chancellors of the University of California as Amici Curiae 4, 9, 11–13. The decline was particularly devastating at California’s most selective campuses, where the rates of admission of underrepresented groups “dropped by 50% or more.” Id., at 4, 12. At the University of California, Berkeley, a top public university not just in California but also nationally, the percentage of Black students in the freshman class dropped from 6.32% in 1995 to 3.37% in 1998. Id., at 12–13. Latino representation similarly dropped from 15.57% to 7.28% during that period at Berkeley, even though Latinos represented 31% of California public high school graduates. Id., at 13. To this day, the student population at California universities still “reflect[s] a persistent inability to increase opportunities” for all racial groups. Id., at 23. For example, as of 2019, the proportion of Black freshmen at Berkeley was 2.76%, well below the pre-constitutional amendment level in 1996, which was 6.32%. Ibid. Latinos composed about 15% of freshmen students at Berkeley in 2019, despite making up 52% of all California public high school graduates. Id., at 24; see also Brief for University of Michigan as Amicus Curiae 21–24 (noting similar trends at the University of Michigan from 2006, the last admissions cycle before Michigan’s ban on race-conscious admissions took effect,
