Supreme Court Justice Jackson Endorses Obama’s Concerns Over Diversity Admissions at Elite Universities

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voiced her agreement with former first lady Michelle Obama’s concerns about diversity recruitment practices at prestigious universities during an appearance on Obama’s podcast Wednesday. Jackson echoed Obama’s assertion that elite institutions do a disservice to students of color by dispersing them sparsely across campus rather than fostering cohesive communities.

Speaking about her own undergraduate experience at Harvard in the late 1980s, Jackson credited the university’s substantial Black student population with providing her a sense of belonging and identity. She contrasted this supportive environment with feelings of isolation she experienced during high school, noting that her tight-knit group of six Black female roommates and the larger minority community at Harvard allowed her to feel authentically herself.

Jackson recused herself from the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision striking down Harvard’s race-conscious admissions due to her prior service on the university’s Board of Overseers. She joined Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent in the companion University of North Carolina case, writing that the ruling would worsen racial disparities and warning that “race still matters to the lived experiences of all Americans in innumerable ways.”

Since the court’s decision, Harvard’s Black student enrollment has declined sharply, falling to 11.5% in the Class of 2029 from 18% in the Class of 2027. Meanwhile, Asian American enrollment climbed to 41%, and Hispanic enrollment dropped to 11% among students who reported their race.

The Justice Department sued Harvard in February seeking applicant-level records to verify compliance with the ruling across undergraduate, law, and medical school programs. Harvard moved to dismiss the case in June, asserting it immediately revised procedures to prevent admissions reviewers from seeing applicants’ race information and provided thousands of pages documenting compliance efforts.