A Challenge to the Spirit of Public Administration: Social Equity Reconsidered in Light of Students for Fair Admissions

Social equity has been considered a pillar that supports the legitimacy of the field of public administration, with affirmative action as one of the most visible vehicles of the principle. However, the Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions calls for a reconsideration of the practice and the value it supports. Though the Court has long viewed affirmative action to be suspect, it has now declared that the practice undermines the Constitution's mandate for equal treatment. This decision confronts not only what university administrators have done in the past, it also raises concerns about the field's broader relationship to the value of social equity more generally. The Court's opinion is a call to the field to recognize that public action which rests on social equity must be in alignment with a stiffened strict scrutiny in order to meet constitutional standards.