Schuette v. BAMN

Schuette v. BAMN
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 15, 2013 Decided April 22, 2014
Full case name	Schuette, Attorney General of Michigan v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigration Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) et al.
Docket no.	12-682
Citations	572 U.S. 291 (more) 134 S. Ct. 1623; 188 L. Ed. 2d 613
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	539 F. Supp. 2d 924 (E.D. Mich. 2008); 539 F. Supp. 2d 960 (E.D. Mich. 2008); 592 F. Supp. 2d 948 (E.D. Mich. 2008); 652 F.3d 607 (6th Cir. 2011); 701 F.3d 466 (6th Cir. 2012); cert. granted, 568 U.S. 1249 (2013).
Holding
Michigan's Proposal 2, banning race-based affirmative action in state universities, does not violate the Equal Protection Clause.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Plurality	Kennedy, joined by Roberts, Alito
Concurrence	Roberts
Concurrence	Scalia (in judgment), joined by Thomas
Concurrence	Breyer (in judgment)
Dissent	Sotomayor, joined by Ginsburg
Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV

Schuette v. BAMN, 572 U.S. 291 (2014), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning affirmative action and race- and sex-based discrimination in public university admissions. In a 6-2 decision, the Court held that the Fourteenth Amendment's Equal Protection Clause does not prevent states from enacting bans on affirmative action in education.

The case arose after Michigan voters approved the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, which amended the state constitution to make affirmative action illegal in public employment and public education. In a plurality opinion joined by two other justices, Justice Anthony Kennedy held that the ban on affirmative action was constitutional. Kennedy wrote that "[t]here is no authority in the Constitution of the United States or in this Court's precedents for the Judiciary to set aside Michigan laws that commit this policy determination to the voters." Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Stephen Breyer concurred in the result but filed or joined separate opinions. In her dissenting opinion, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the voters of Michigan had "changed the basic rules of the political process in that State in a manner that uniquely disadvantaged racial minorities."