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Abstract

On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. In this landmark decision, the Court found that race-based affirmative action practices in college admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because they unlawfully discriminate against college applicants based on their race. The public response to this decision was swift. Some praised the Court for taking a stand against affirmative action, while others greatly criticized it, fearing it would end diversity in higher education. However, among these voices were others whose attention was drawn to another issue: legacy admissions.

“Legacy admissions,” or “legacy preferences,” is the name given to a practice found in college admissions where the children of alumni are given preference or priority based solely upon their parent’s alumni status. These preferences greatly increase an applicant’s chances of being admitted to the nation’s most “prestigious” institutions of higher education with the hope of strengthening the bond between the universities and their alumni. However, these preferences have long been subjected to public scrutiny because the overwhelming majority of applicants who benefit from the practice are white and come from the wealthiest families.

With the recent decision in Students for Fair Admissions ending affirmative action in higher education, the public disdain for legacy admissions has only increased, with many calling for the end of these preferences. Consequently, that case provides a near-perfect framework the Court could use to strike down legacy admissions. Many legal scholars have proposed legal theories that would end legacy admissions, with the most common being a claim of racial discrimination. However, a claim based on racial discrimination would likely fail because legacy admissions lack a racially discriminatory purpose. Thus, this Note proposes that the Court could invalidate legacy admissions as a form of ancestral discrimination— which prohibits discrimination based on ancestry or family history—under the framework of Students for Fair Admissions.

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