미국연방대법원의 고등교육 입학정책으로서의 소수인종 우대조치 위헌결정에 관한 몇 가지 생각 - SFFA v. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 사건을 중심으로 -

In STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE (the SFFA decision), the U.S. Supreme Court critically limited affirmative action in higher education, a long-standing and controversial issue in American society. In this historic ruling, it is said that the Court effectively ended race-conscious admissions programs at colleges and universities across the country. The Court held that the educational benefits the defendants claimed to derive from diversity in the student body - developing future leaders, acquiring new knowledge based on diverse perspectives, promoting a healthy marketplace of ideas, and preparing engaged and productive citizens - were not measurable interests subject to judicial review to determine whether they constituted a compelling governmental interest, a requirement of strict scrutiny. The Court also held that the respondents' admissions programs failed to satisfy the second prong of strict scrutiny by failing to articulate a meaningful connection between the race-conscious means they employed and the goals they sought to achieve. Therefore, this article reviews and analyzes the U.S. Supreme Court's SFFA ruling in June and examines the implications of this ruling for the future of affirmative action in American society and higher education, and identifies implications for affirmative action policies in Korea.