University+of+California+v.+Bakke

__**University of California v. Bakke**__

__**Date Of Hearing:**__ Wednesday, Oct. 12th, 1977

__**Chief Jusice:**__ Warren E. Burger: 15th United States justice from 1969-1986. Born in Saint Paul, Missouri. He was of Swiss German descent. Emigrated from Switzerland and joined the __**Union Army at 14. wounded in the cival war and awarded the medal of honor (remember, the Civil War was in the 1860s, 100 years before this case came to the Court. Can't be same guy).**__ He worked on cases like Swann vs. Charlotte-Mecklenburn Board of Education (1971), Furman vs. Georgia (1972), Roe vs. Wade (1973), and the unanimous 8-0 decision in United States vs. Nixon.

__**Documents/Amendments:**__14th amendment's equal protection clause and section six of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

__**Summary:**__ Allan Bakke applied to the Universtiy of California with all of the qualifications to get in. He was denied acceptance, but later found out that African Americans with lower qualifications were accepted. The University had a "special admissions" program that enabled African Americans, Hispanics, and other "minorities" to get into the college with lower qualifications. After being rejected by so many other colleges, Bakke filed an action in state court for mandatory, injunctive, and declaratory relief to compel his admission to Davis, alleging that the special admissions program operated to exclude him on the basis of his race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

__**Main issue/Argument:**__ Was denying Bakke access to University of California unconstitutional?

__**Decision and Vote:**__ Since UC Davis Medical School could not prove that, even without the special admissions program, Bakke would never have been admitted anyway, UC Davis was compelled to admit Bakke. The decision was unanimous.

__**Voting:**__ A split vote, 4 dissenting and 5 voting for judgement of the court.

__**Members of the Court:**__ Burger, Stewart, Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens, Brennan, White, Marshall, Blackmun. **(how long had they been on the Court?)**

__**Opinion:**__ We believe that the highest qualified should be accepted into the college. It shouldn't matter if you're black, white, green, yellow, or purple. Any kind of 'special admissions' is definitely unconstitutional. Race shouldn't be a factor in college admissions. College admission should be based on the qualifications of the applicant, just like everything else.


 * __Opposite Outcome:__** The jury **(Supreme Court, not jury)** could have decided that the special admissions program was in fault, not the University. They could have just dismissed the program, but not let Bakke into the college. there was no question that the admissions program was at fault, but whether the University should let Bakke in was the main issue.

0/7 Biblio - where is it? 22/28 Content - very light on analysis, details, etc. How did everyone vote and why?? Make sure you have accurate info. 5/5 Organization

27/40 Total