Regents of The University of California V. Bakke - History

History

Allan Bakke, a 33-year-old white male, applied to twelve medical schools in 1973. He had been a National Merit Scholar at Coral Gables Senior High School, an all-white school in Florida. He was accepted as an undergraduate at the University of Minnesota, deferring tuition costs by joining ROTC. He graduated with the GPA of 3.51. In order to fulfill his ROTC requirements, he joined the Marines and later served a seven-month tour of duty in Vietnam. In 1967, he received an honorable discharge with the rank of Captain. He worked as an engineer at NASA. He stated that his interest in medicine started in Vietnam, which increased at NASA, as he had to consider the problems of space flight and the human body while at NASA. But twelve medical schools rejected his application for admission.

Bakke first applied to University of Southern California and Northwestern in 1972 and both rejected him, making a point of his age. Northwestern wrote "his age was above their stated limit." His 1973 application to Davis reflects his anxiety about his age, referring to his year of sacrifice for his country as a setback and cause of his late interest in medicine. His quantitative criterion for acceptance was considered excellent. He took the Medical College Admissions Test, scoring in the top three percent. He also maintained a science GPA of 1.44 and an overall GPA of 1.46 after taking science courses at night to qualify for medical school. He should have been concerned about his age, for he was rejected despite the fact that his scores were well above the scores of an average admittee at University of California Davis medical school. A Davis Faculty member from Bakke's 1973 interview believed that he was a "well-qualified candidate for admission whose main handicap is the unavoidable fact that he is now 33 years of age."

Allan Bakke applied to University of California, Davis School of Medicine in 1973 and 1974, but was rejected in both years, although "special applicants" were admitted with significantly lower academic scores than Bakke's. However, the "regular committee often turned down well-qualified minority applicants" claiming that a 3.4 GPA was not a 3.6 GPA. These special applicants were admitted under provisions either for members of a "minority groups" (such as Blacks or Hispanics), or as "economically and/or educationally disadvantaged" – but although many disadvantaged Caucasians had applied under this second provision, none had been successful. In 1974, in particular, the special admissions committee explicitly stated they would consider only candidates who were from explicitly designated minority groups.

After his second rejection, Bakke filed an action in state court for mandatory, injunctive, and declaratory relief to compel his admission to Davis, alleging that the special admissions program operated to exclude him on the basis of his race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

UC Davis Medical School counter-claimed for a declaration that its special admissions program was lawful.

The trial court found that the special program operated as a racial quota, because minority applicants in that program were rated only against one another, and 16 places in the class were reserved for the clause. Because the Medical School could not satisfy its burden of demonstrating that, absent the special program, Bakke would not have been admitted, the court ordered his admission to the Medical School. Bakke began his studies at the University of California Medical School at Davis in fall of 1978, graduated in 1982, and later served as a resident at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Since the Supreme Court decided Bakke, California banned the state's use of race as a factor to consider in public schools' admission policies. California's Proposition 209 mandates that "the state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting."