One of the Supreme Court cases that defined the application process is the University of California v. Bakke case. This was a case that was very controversial on both sides, and is still debated to this day. It defined affirmative action, and by that it allowed certain minorities a better chance to get into schools. Women, veterans, minorities, and elderly people had a better chance of getting into college. Allan Bakke, a white male, was applying to several medical schools and applied to the University of California and got rejected. He felt he was well over qualified and knew that some minorities got into the school that weren't that qualified and was furious so he bought the dispute to court in California. The courts in California sided with Bakke and he was admitted into the school. The school then appealed the case and it soon ended up in the Supreme Court, and they overturned the decision of the lower court. The court felt that affirmative action produces diversity and decided to uphold it. .
The issues that were argued for Bakke's side was the schools quota violated the Fourteenth Amendment, the Privileges & Immunities portion of the California Constitution and Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The University argued that they had a right to consider a person's race when it came to admissions and they had a right to admit who they wanted to. They also brought up past history discrimination and thought it could be a good way to resolve it. .
The Supreme Court's decision sided with the University of California and reaffirmed affirmative action. The court issued a two-part decision, in the first part the justices ruled against the medical school's special program and ordered that Allan Bakke be admitted. The second part of the decision stated that schools could consider race or ethnic background as one factor among others in determining admissions. .
The significance of the court's case allowed more minorities a better chance to get into college.
