EOTO Recap - California Reagents v Bakke

 California Reagents v Bakke Mock Trial Recap

    In class we had the opportunity to go through the motions of the California Reagents v. Bakke trial. This was a very prominent case, signifying whether affirmative action and minority quotas were Constitutional and would be permitted to continue on within schools and corporations. The case began when Allan Bakke; veteran, NASA intern, and med-school applicant, was denied twice from University of California at Davis. Bakke reportedly had stand out MCAT scores, a high GPA, and decent interviews and was well rounded between the participation in the U.S. Military as well as NASA. 

    The side of Bakke deemed racial quotas unconstitutional. They said that affirmative action makes it unfair for students who do not fit the certain group standards to be admitted. Based upon solely numerical values such as grades and GPA, Bakke was more than qualified to be admitted to the medical school. Due to the 16% minority requirement, it is believed that Bakke was denied based upon the need to meet that racial quota. Although there is no legitimate proof of this theory, the Bakke team did have solid reason to believe that this was the truth. Title 6 states that government funded institutions, may not implement any forms of discrimination throughout the process of deeming applicants acceptable. Due to the lack of reasoning for Bakke's denial, it is probable that the disallowance of his admittance is due to him being a white American man. 

    On the side of the California Reagents, they made it clear that their goal is to implement diversity through the use of affirmative action. Affirmative action provides equal opportunity to minorities, granting able and worthy students who lack the funds for college the ability to obtain a higher education degree. The Reagents also elaborated on the point that Bakke was considered on more accounts than simply race and he was deemed unfit for the program. Affirmative action also helps to raise the standard of living within poor minority communities. Along with that, 44 white applicants were accepted in addition to 56 black students. This goes to support that there were still many white students admitted to the program and if Bakke was worthy of being admitted, he would have been. 

    This case ruled that the usage of racial quotas in the college admissions process was unconstitutional and would need to be stopped. But, a schools utilization of affirmative action is acceptable in some cases. This was a turning point for colleges and granted a more equalized playing field on the basis of college admittance.