Publication Date
8-31-2025
Abstract
On October 25th, 2024, the Northwestern University Law Review hosted its annual symposium, titled Racial Justice After SFFA v. Harvard. The Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina (collectively, SFFA) marked a seismic shift in equal protection law, dismantling the practice of race-conscious admissions that had existed for almost half a century The symposium sought to address the impact and ramifications of this historic ruling, and through four panels, seven essays, and a keynote speech from Janai Nelson, President of NAACP Legal Defense Fund, we would declare a success. Both on the day itself and the in the scholarship that emerged thereafter, thoughtful discussion and crucial debate occurred about how to best “march forward” in the shadow of SFFA. The pieces in this issue explore theories of constitutional interpretation and crisis convergence, analyze attacks on racial inclusion policies and racial consciousness, discuss the role of affirmative action and the impact of structural inequities, and underscore the foundational importance of standing and stare decisis. The Northwestern University Law Review is unsurprisingly proud to be able to contribute to these ever-more-important areas of scholarship. However, we would be remiss not to bring attention to the fact that the landscape of racial justice in this country has changed—and continues to change—dramatically.
Recommended Citation
R. May Hiatt and Lillian Pieper,
Forward: Racial Justice in a Changing World,
120
Nw. U. L. Rev.
1
(2025).
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/nulr/vol120/iss1/1