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Are White People a Protected Class Now?
(Ernst Haas via Getty Images)
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court signals that the era of affirmative action really has come to an end.
By Jed Rubenfeld
06.08.25 — U.S. Politics
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For a year after the 2020 George Floyd riots, America’s largest corporations reportedly pretty much stopped hiring white people. According to Bloomberg News, of the over 300,000 new jobs filled at S&P 100 companies in 2021, only six percent went to whites, who make up some 61 percent of the U.S. population.

That Bloomberg analysis has been much disputed, with other outlets arguing that whites made up around 46 percent of new hires, although Bloomberg has stood by its story and methodology. What isn’t in dispute is that, at the height of the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, corporate America made promises to hire many more people of color in the name of “inclusivity” and “diversity.”

But under a major new Supreme Court case decided last week—which you may have missed in the Trump-Musk uproar—a different description now applies to such DEI hiring practices. They can now be called a violation of the country’s race-discrimination laws.

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Jed Rubenfeld
Jed Rubenfeld is a professor of constitutional law at Yale Law School, a free speech lawyer, and host of the Straight Down the Middle podcast. He is the author of five books, including the million-copy bestselling novel The Interpretation of Murder, and his work has been translated into over thirty languages. He lives with his wife, Amy Chua, in New York City, and is the proud father of two exceptional daughters, Sophia and Lulu.
Tags:
Donald Trump
Supreme Court
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