The Board v. Bakke

In 1978, a landmark decision by the Supreme Court was made. It upheld affirmative action, allowing race to be one of the factors during the admission to colleges. However, the court rules that the racial quota of the University of California, Davis School of Medicine would not change.

Bakke, a white male, had argued that it was unfair that he had been rejected twice by admissions. He argued that his MCAT scores, GPA, and benchmark scores were higher than several recent applicants of other minorities, and that this violated the rights of white applicants.

The court decided that it was more important to have racial quotas for diversity than to change the rule and allow the applicants with the best résumés. They did not change the rule that they will have racial quotas, but they did say that race would be a factor in admissions for the idea of adversity at schools around the country.