WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a major challenge to race-based affirmative action in the nation’s college and universities, setting the stage for another long-sought win for conservatives.
The justices voted to hear a pair of appeals contending that Harvard University, the nation’s oldest private university, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the oldest public university, are violating civil rights laws by giving preferences to some minority students seeking admission while discriminating against others, including Asian Americans.
They ask the court to rule that universities, whether public or private, may “not use race as a factor in admissions.” And they rely on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which says no person “shall be subjected to discrimination ... on the ground of race, color or national origin” in a school or university that receives federal funds.
