Opinion of the Court
Our acceptance of race-based state action has been rare for a reason. “Distinctions between citizens solely because of their ancestry are by their very nature odious to a free people whose institutions are founded upon the doctrine of equality.” Rice v. Cayetano, 528 U. S. 495, 517 (2000) (quoting Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 U. S. 81, 100 (1943)). That principle cannot be overridden except in the most extraordinary case.
B
These cases involve whether a university may make admissions decisions that turn on an applicant’s race. Our Court first considered that issue in Regents of University of California v. Bakke, which involved a set-aside admissions program used by the University of California, Davis, medical school. 438 U. S., at 272–276. Each year, the school held 16 of its 100 seats open for members of certain minority groups, who were reviewed on a special admissions track separate from those in the main admissions pool. Id., at
Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483 (1954), in the infamous case Korematsu v. United States, 323 U. S. 214, 216 (1944). There, the Court upheld the internment of “all persons of Japanese ancestry in prescribed West Coast … areas” during World War II because “the military urgency of the situation demanded” it. Id., at 217, 223. We have since overruled Korematsu, recognizing that it was “gravely wrong the day it was decided.” Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U. S. ___, ___ (2018) (slip op., at 38). The Court’s decision in Korematsu nevertheless “demonstrates vividly that even the most rigid scrutiny can sometimes fail to detect an illegitimate racial classification” and that “[a]ny retreat from the most searching judicial inquiry can only increase the risk of another such error occurring in the future.” Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Peña, 515 U. S. 200, 236 (1995) (internal quotation marks omitted).
The principal dissent, for its part, claims that the Court has also permitted “the use of race when that use burdens minority populations.” Post, at 38–39 (opinion of Sotomayor, J.). In support of that claim, the dissent cites two cases that have nothing to do with the Equal Protection Clause. See ibid. (citing United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U. S. 873 (1975) (Fourth Amendment case), and United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U. S. 543 (1976) (another Fourth Amendment case)).
