Gratz v. Bollinger

Gratz v. Bollinger is a landmark 2003 judgment of U.S. Supreme Court that together with its companion case, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), defines the circumstances under which officials at colleges and universities may consider race in making admissions decisions. On the one hand, in Grutter the Court ruled that achieving the educational benefits of a diverse student body is a compelling governmental interest and articulated a multifac-tored standard for determining narrow tailoring. On the other hand, in Gratz the Court found that the use of race in a university's undergraduate admissions was not narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling governmental interest. This entry reviews the Court's analysis in Gratz in some detail.