The admissions program set aside 16 spaces out of every 100 for students admitted through a "special admissions program" for minority applicants. -"Allan Bakke, a white, male, thirty-seven-year-old professional engineer whose application to the University of California-Davis medical school had been turned down twice." (Wu, 1998). Bakke argued that he was more qualified than all of the minorities that were accepted during the two year period he was denied admission. .
There aren't many different ground rules that standout to me when you hear about this particular case. The ground rules are race, and the lawfulness of the admissions program in conjunction with the Civil Rights act of 1964. I feel like other ground rules when speaking about preferential admissions could be money and recognition. When schools admit student athletes and alumni children that do not meet normal criteria the basis is money. If these student athletes can bring more money into the school by making there athletics program do better than it is ok. It is thought that alumni will put more money into the school if the school has a large population of alumni's children. Recognition is something else that schools will receive by admitting students preferentially. If the end up being a very diverse, athletically powerful school then a lot of other prospective students may be interested in attending. .
There was no majority decision on this particular case. Four justices of the Supreme Court ruled that although the program was unconstitutional because it involved a quota, it was lawful to take race into account in admissions. Four other justices agreed that the quota program was unlawful but not unconstitutional; they ruled that it was unlawful under Title VI, the federal right statute. Therefore, it came down to Justice Powell's opinion. Powell's controlling opinion supported the use of race in college admissions. Powell wrote, "that the use of race should be subject to "strict scrutiny" meaning that : (1) there should be a compelling governmental interest in using race; and (2) the program must be necessary - or narrowly tailored to achieve - that interest.
