Is It a Rogue Court? Biden: 'This Is Not a Normal Court' After the Affirmative Action Ruling (June 29, 2023)

The Supreme Court ended race-based college admissions on June 29, 2023, and President Joe Biden came out swinging. As he was leaving the Roosevelt Room, a reporter shouted a question: “Is this a rogue Court?”

“This is not a normal Court,” Biden answered [1].

The video above shows Biden’s remarks at the White House that afternoon. Quotes are from the official transcript published by the American Presidency Project and from the Court’s opinion [1][3].

”Is This a Rogue Court?”

The question came at the very end. “President Biden, the Congressional Black Caucus said the Supreme Court has ‘thrown into question its own legitimacy.’ Is this a rogue Court?” the reporter asked. Biden gave his five-word answer. Another reporter followed: “Should there be term limits for the Justices, sir?” [1]

Biden did not answer that one. The White House press pool reported that he “answered one shouted question about whether the court is a rogue court” and then boarded Marine One for New York [2].

”I Strongly—Strongly—Disagree”

In his prepared remarks, Biden sided with the dissent. “The Court has effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions. And I strongly—strongly—disagree with the Court’s decision,” he said [1].

He said the Court had “once again walked away from decades of precedent.” He quoted the dissent, which said the decision “rolls back decades of precedent and momentous progress.” “I agree with that statement from the dissents—from the dissent,” Biden said [1].

He insisted the old system did not favor unqualified students. “Many people wrongly believe that affirmative action allows unqualified students—unqualified students—to be admitted ahead of qualified students. This is not—this is not—how college admissions work,” Biden said [1].

”Cannot Let This Decision Be the Last Word”

“We cannot let this decision be the last word. I want to emphasize: We cannot let this decision be the last word,” Biden said [1].

He told business, too, to keep going. “Companies who are already realizing the value in diversity should not use this decision as an excuse to turn away from diversity either. We can’t go backwards,” he said [1].

He also ordered a review of college admissions. “Today I’m directing the Department of Education to analyze what practices help build a more inclusive and diverse student bodies and what practices hold that back, practices like legacy admissions,” Biden said [1].

”Seventy-Seven Percent”

Biden then garbled a statistic. “Students from the top 1 percent of family incomes in America are 77 times more likely to get into an elite college than one from the bottom 20 percent of family incomes,” he said. In the next breath, he restated it: “Seventy-seven percent greater opportunity” [1].

He also told colleges not to give up. “They should not abandon their commitment to ensure student bodies of diverse backgrounds and experience that reflect all of America,” he said, and he proposed weighing “the adversity a student has overcome” instead [1].

”Eliminating All of It”

The Court’s six-justice majority saw it differently. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett [3].

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” the Court said. The Equal Protection Clause, it said, applies “without regard to any differences of race, of color, or of nationality” [3].

The Court found the Harvard and UNC programs “involve racial stereotyping, and lack meaningful end points.” “Many universities have for too long wrongly concluded that the touchstone of an individual’s identity is not challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned, but the color of their skin. This Nation’s constitutional history does not tolerate that choice,” the Court said [3].

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson “took no part in the consideration or decision of the case” against Harvard, the opinion noted, though she dissented in the companion case against the University of North Carolina [3].

By the Numbers

6-3: the Court’s vote in the University of North Carolina case [3].
45 years: how long, Biden said, the Court had recognized “a college’s freedom to decide how to build diverse student bodies” [1].
77 times: how much more likely Biden said top-1% students are to get into elite colleges, before he called it “77 percent” [1].
18 years: the Supreme Court term Biden later proposed for justices [4].
2: reporter questions Biden faced on the way out; he answered one [1].

What Happened Next

Biden later embraced term limits. A year later, on July 29, 2024, the White House announced a plan for “Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices,” under which “the President would appoint a Justice every two years to spend eighteen years in active service on the Supreme Court” [4]. The plan also called for a constitutional amendment on presidential immunity [4].

Trump enforced the ruling. On Jan. 21, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” It said institutions “have adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ (DEI)” [5].

The order directed guidance to colleges that receive federal money “regarding the measures and practices required to comply with Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College” [5].

For another clash over race and the courts, see HYGO News’ page on Kennedy and Biden’s judicial nominees.