Bakke v. California Reaction

Half of our class presented a mock trial for the real life case: Bakke v. California. Two teams were assigned to either be Bakke's legal team or a legal team for the University of California. 

In 1973, a caucasian man by the name of Allan Bakke applied for the medical school at the University of California, but got denied. This confused Bakke very much cause he had very very high grades and amazing test scores. Apparently at the University of California they used to have a racial quota that said that 16 out of the 100 students that they could select were reserved for people of color, so Bakke did not get admitted to this school. He thought this went against his fourteenth amendment right. The fourteenth amendment states, "No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Bakke believed that this violated his privileges as a citizen. Bakke sued the University of California for violating this amendment and violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which prohibited the discrimination of race. 

In the presentations, I think it was interesting that people on the University of California's legal team brought up how people of color were mistreated for years and this one time something like this happens to a white male is when they start to cause a fight over it. Many colored people a few years prior to this were not allowed an education at all and never had an equal chance as the white people. However, I do not feel that this quota is the way to fix this. They should everyone an equal, fighting chance whatever their race may be. How is it special to get into the University you want only knowing that they accepted you for your race and not your grades or abilities? 

The court eventually decided in favor of Bakke, which I agree with. This decision resulted in the University erasing the racial quota from their program completely, and gave everyone an equal chance to be admitted.