• How has Bakke shaped our understanding of race, access to education, and affirmative action?

• Will Bakke remain relevant for the future, legally and politically?

• Can we use Bakke to re-envision affirmative action in higher education?

“Patricia Marin and Catherine Horn have brought together new studies exploring the legacy of the 1978 Bakke decision which has helped shape colleges for three decades. The book shows how the decision teetered between the equity impulse of the civil rights revolution and the conservative takeover of the courts and demonstrates that the problems that made affirmative action necessary are still profoundly rooted in our society. This book has insights and new data that will help move the national debate forward.”―Gary Orfield, Co-Director, Civil Rights Project / Proyecto Derechos Civiles, UCLA

Published to mark the 30th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Bakke decision, this book explores the complex set of legal and educational policy circumstances established by this historic court decision that continues to simultaneously frame, narrow, and confound our understanding of affirmative action in higher education specifically, and issues of equity in education broadly.

By “upholding Bakke,” the Supreme Court, in its Gratz and Grutter opinions, maintained its centrality in the on-going argument about access to higher education. However, this validation of racial and ethnic diversity as a legally compelling interest did not silence the multiplicity of voices debating the consequences and fundamental issues of Bakke. Multi-disciplinary in approach and multi-racial in content, this book represents that kaleidoscope of voices and opinions.