'This Is A Great Day': President Trump Responds To The Supreme Court's Landmark Decision Overturning Affirmative Action

On Thursday, leading Republican candidate and 45th President Donald Trump responded to the landmark decision by the Supreme Court to overturn affirmative action in a 6-3 decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.

"This is a great day for America," Trump began. "People with extraordinary ability and everything else necessary for success, including future greatness for our Country, are finally being rewarded."

"This is the ruling everyone was waiting and hoping for and the result was amazing," he wrote on Truth Social. "It will also keep us competitive with the rest of the world. Our greatest minds must be cherished and that’s what this wonderful day has brought. We’re going back to all merit-based—and that’s the way it should be!"

In the majority opinion, the Supreme Court found that it was unconstitutional to consider race in university admissions thus striking a blow to the way that college admissions have functioned for decades. The decision fell on ideological lines with the six conservative justices voting in favor of Students for Fair Admissions while the three liberal justices voted against it.

The much beloved Justice Clarence Thomas issued a concurring opinion on the case writing in his conclusion, "The great failure of this country was slavery and its progeny. And, the tragic failure of this Court was its misinterpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments, as Justice Harlan predicted in Plessy. We should not repeat this mistake merely because we think, as our predecessors thought, that the present arrangements are superior to the Constitution."

"The Court’s opinion rightly makes clear that Grutter is, for all intents and purposes, overruled. And, it sees the universities’ admissions policies for what they are: rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes," the justice explained. "Those policies fly in the face of our colorblind Constitution and our Nation’s equality ideal. In short, they are plainly—and boldly—unconstitutional. See Brown II, 349 U. S., at 298 (noting that the Brown case one year earlier had 'declare[d] the fundamental principle that racial discrimination in public education is unconstitutional')."

"While I am painfully aware of the social and economic ravages which have befallen my race and all who suffer discrimination, I hold out enduring hope that this country will live up to its principles so clearly enunciated in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States: that all men are created equal, are equal citizens, and must be treated equally before the law," Thomas concluded.

The Supreme Court's decision is one more step in ensuring the vision outlined by Martin Luther King Jr. will come to fruition in America. This is a good day for the country and for the millions of students entering colleges and universities across the country.

The full opinion can be read here.

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