Bakke

In 1973 a thirty-three year old Caucasian male named Allan Bakke applied to and was denied admission to the University of California Medical School at Davis. In 1974 he filed another application and was once again rejected, even though his t est scores were considerably higher than various minorities that were admitted under a special program. This special program specified that 16 out of 100 possible spaces for the students in the medical program were set aside solely for …

…race, was okay. He demonstrated this when he voted on this point with Justices Brennan, Marshal, White, and Harry A. Blackmun. After eight months, a vote of 5-4 decided that Bakke be admitted to the medical school at Davis. The decision on the constitutional issue was that a numerical quota was unconstitutional unless it was used to right a previous discrimination. However, using race and religion as a plus in educational admissions was deemed constitutional.