Supreme Court cases on affirmative action threaten diversity in medicine

Abstract

During the Supreme Court oral arguments about affirmative action in October 2022, Justice Elena Kagan asked, "[I]f you're a hospital and you serve a diverse group of patients, is it super important to you to have a diverse set of doctors?" Justice Kagan's question raises whether the Supreme Court, poised to end affirmative action, may diminish the diversity of health providers in the United States.Two affirmative action lawsuits facing the court-against the University of North Carolina (UNC) and Harvard University-will likely have severe ramifications for medical training and health equity.Given the likelihood that the Supreme Court will end affirmative action, medical institutions must plan how to further diversity without incurring liability.More broadly, the cases follow a pattern of judicial intrusion into the affairs of medicine and health.As with abortion, contraception, health insurance, and COVID-19, the Supreme Court has encroached on the field of medicine, denying expert guidance on what is required in order to achieve a healthy and equitable society.The affirmative action cases are emblematic of a high court intent on opposing racial progress and other forms of social change. Race in AdmissionsThe lawsuits, filed in 2014, allege that both universities impermissibly use race as a factor in admissions, amounting to racial discrimination.Medical schools are indirectly in the crosshairs of this litigation, given that most medical schools today use race in admissions to help secure a racially diverse student body.However, consideration of race in admissions has been increasingly subject to legal challenge, the first in a parade of cases being Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.Allan Bakke, a White male, was denied admission twice to the University of California Davis (UC Davis) School of Medicine and challenged the school's practice of reserving 16 spots each year for racially or ethnically diverse medical students (1).The Supreme Court invalidated this program as an impermissible racial quota, but said schools could still consider race as a plus factor.Perhaps because this litigation was so successful (and landed Bakke The affirmative action cases before the Supreme Court follow a recent pattern of judicial intrusion into the affairs of medicine and health.Image credit: Shutterstock/ ProStockStudio.

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