Posted June 30th, 2023 in Top Stories with Tags Firm Statements

NJL Statement on the Supreme Court Ruling in College Admissions Processes

The professionals at Nilan Johnson Lewis (NJL) are deeply disappointed in the Supreme Court’s ruling in the cases of Students for Fair Admissions, Inc., v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, in which the Court rejected the notion that universities may consider an applicant’s race as one factor in their admissions processes to achieve the educational benefits of diversity on campus. NJL agrees with Justice Sotomayor’s statement that “[t]he Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment enshrines a guarantee of racial equality,” and “[t]he Court long ago concluded that this guarantee can be enforced through race-conscious means in a society that is not, and has never been, colorblind.”

NJL agrees that diversity of all types leads to increased innovation, greater problem solving, higher quality work, and more successful legal outcomes. NJL will continue to assemble, train, and support excellent attorneys and legal professionals from all backgrounds, while striving to overcome what Justice Brown Jackson described as “[g]ulf-sized race-based gaps [that] exist with respect to the health, wealth, and well-being of American citizens. They were created in the distant past but have indisputably been passed down to the present day through the generations. Every moment these gaps persist is a moment in which this great country falls short of actualizing one of its foundational principles—the ‘self-evident’ truth that all of us are created equal.”