In the more than three decades since the Supreme Court’s ruling in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke affirmed the constitutionality of affirmative action in public colleges and universities, many institutions of higher education have implemented race-conscious admissions programs in order to achieve a racially and ethnically diverse student body or faculty. Nevertheless, the pursuit of diversity in higher education remains controversial, and legal challenges to such admissions programs routinely continue to occur. Currently, the Court is poised to consider a novel question involving affirmative action in higher education during its upcoming 2013-2014 term. Unlike earlier rulings, in which the Court considered whether it is constitutional for a state to use racial preferences in higher education, the new case, Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, raises the question of whether it is constitutional for a state to ban such preferences in higher education. Schuette arose in the wake of a pair of cases involving admissions to the University of Michigan’s law school and undergraduate programs.