for the judgment). That a decision of the US Supreme Court includes no majority opinion is unusual; typically, a majority of the Court can reach a consensus on the reasons underlying a judgment. As the Justices could not agree on a majority opinion, Bakke did not come to be the conclusive statement on so-called "reverse discrimination" many had expected. While Bakke offers no majority opinion, an opinion by Justice Powell "announced" the judgment of the Court. Accordingly, his views are most often quoted as legal authority on three issues surrounding affirmative action admissions policies in higher education: 1.Diversity. Justice Powell found a diverse student body to be a "constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education," and declared that "the nation's future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation of many peoples." 2.Racial and ethnic quotas. Justice Powell rejected quotas, however, as a means of achieving diversity; he termed such a mechanism "facially invalid." "Preferring members of any one group," Justice Powell wrote, "for no reason other than race or ethnic origin is discrimination for its own sake." 3.Race as a factor in admissions. Quotas, according to Justice Powell, are not a "necessary means" to diversity among students at a college or university. Rather, race or ethnic background could be deemed a "'plus' in a particular applicants file." "The file of a particular black applicant" he wrote, "may be examined for his potential contribution to diversity without the factor of race being decisive when compared, for example, with that of an applicant identified as an Italian-American if the latter is thought to exhibit qualities more likely to promote beneficial educational pluralism." ntation of those minorities in their student body.(5) In striking down the law school's admissions procedures, the Fifth Circuit concluded that any u...
