On December 4, 2006, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases which presented the question of whether the Court's affirmative action decisions in Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger allowed public school districts to assign students to certain schools based partially on their race. In both cases, parents of students challenged that this use of race violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court ultimately struck down public school consideration of race in the consolidated cases of Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education and Parents Involved v. Seattle School District.

Learn more about the laws governing equal protection and affirmative action from the JURIST news archive.