Sotomayor, J., dissenting
through present); id., at 24–25 (explaining that the university’s “experience is largely consistent with other schools that do not consider race as a factor in admissions,” including, for example, the University of Oklahoma’s most prestigious campus).
The costly result of today’s decision harms not just respondents and students but also our institutions and democratic society more broadly. Dozens of amici from nearly every sector of society agree that the absence of race-conscious college admissions will decrease the pipeline of racially diverse college graduates to crucial professions. Those amici include the United States, which emphasizes the need for diversity in the Nation’s military, see United States Brief 12–18, and in the federal workforce more generally, id., at 19–20 (discussing various federal agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence). The United States explains that “the Nation’s military strength and readiness depend on a pipeline of officers who are both highly qualified and racially diverse—and who have been educated in diverse environments that prepare them to lead increasingly diverse forces.” Id., at 12. That is true not just at the military service academies but “at civilian universities, including Harvard, that host Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) programs and educate students who go on to become officers.” Ibid. Top former military leaders agree. See Brief for Adm. Charles S. Abbot et al. as Amici Curiae 3 (noting that in amici’s “professional judgment, the status quo—which permits service academies and civilian universities to consider racial diversity as one factor among many in their admissions practices—is essential to the continued vitality of the U. S. military”).
Indeed, history teaches that racial diversity is a national security imperative. During the Vietnam War, for example, lack of racial diversity “threatened the integrity and perfor-
