In response to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling to reverse affirmative action in colleges and universities, the JCJ Micah D. Bycel Summer Fellows issued the following joint statement:
We are outraged over the Supreme Court’s catastrophic decision to overturn the use of affirmative action policies for college and university admissions, a practice used since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the nation’s highest court has overturned this long-standing precedent, it does not mean that affirmative action is dead outright.
Pirkei Avot reminds us that we must judge each person favorably. The principle of Affirmative Action is intended to level the playing field for those who have historically been judged too harshly. As a cohort of young people—many of whom currently attend college or plan to in the future—we encourage universities to continue to invest in holistic and diverse policies in their application and recruitment processes.