Most Americans support Supreme Court’s ending of affirmative action

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The majority of Americans believe the Supreme Court’s ruling last year that ended affirmative action for universities around the country is “mostly a good thing,” according to a new poll.

Sixty-eight percent of respondents said they viewed the decision favorably, while 32 percent said it’s “mostly a bad thing,” according to a Gallup Center.

Black Americans were most divided in their responses, with 52 percent in favor of the decision and 48 percent against. White adults viewed it most favorably compared to polled Black, Hispanic and Asian Americans, with 72 percent saying it was a good move.

A slight majority of polled white adults believe the ruling will have “no difference” on campus diversity, while 57 percent of Asian adults, 49 percent of Black adults and 36 percent of Hispanic adults believe the impact will be “Much/Slightly less diverse” college campuses.

The Gallup poll was conducted Oct. 25 – Nov. 9. According to Gallup, the typical sample size for their poll is 1,000 national adults reached via landline with a margin of error of ±4 percentage points.

In June 2023, the Supreme Court issued a major blow to affirmative action in higher education after it struck down race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. The ruling was divided along ideological lines, as the high court’s six-justice conservative majority found that the universities discriminated against white and Asian American applicants by using race-conscious policies that benefited applicants from underrepresented backgrounds.

Previous Gallup polls found that around 70 percent of Americans had consistently supported deciding admissions solely on merit rather than factoring in a student’s race or ethnicity.

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