Grutter and Gratz: A Critical Analysis

Abstract

This Article will analyze the Grutter and Gratz opinions, especially Justice O'Connor's important opinion for the majority in Grutter, and will consider the significance of these decisions in terms of university admissions policy, justifications for racial preferences, and equal protection doctrine. The article will conclude that the Court's defense of the use of racial preferences does not square well with the Powell opinion in Bakke on which it relied so heavily. It will suggest that the Court could have offered a more persuasive explanation for the result it reached but probably felt precluded by precedent from doing so.

Keywords: Grutter v. Bollinger, Gratz v. Bollinger, University of California v. Bakke, Supreme Court, race, civil rights, higher education, racial minorities, discrimination, racial preferences, diversity justification, equal protection