Supreme Court to consider landmark challenge to Harvard and UNC affirmative action policies - CNN

The university lawyers, as well as the Department of Justice, had urged the high court to reject the appeals.

Case was designed to reach SCOTUS

The case against Harvard was brought under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits schools receiving federal funds from discriminating based on race.

The group contends the Ivy League campus holds Asian-American applicants to higher standards than African-American and Latino students and engages in stereotypes, such as that Asian-Americans are "book smart and one-dimensional."

"Harvard's mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is appalling," the challengers told the high court in a written filing.

A trial judge in Boston and the 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals panel rejected those assertions and ruled for Harvard, based on Supreme Court precedent allowing colleges to use race as a "plus" factor among many criteria.

Harvard argued it considers race in a "flexible" way that benefits all highly qualified candidates.

(The Supreme Court reaffirmed Bakke in the 2003 decision in a University of Michigan law school case, Grutter v. Bollinger.)

The University of North Carolina practices were upheld by a trial court judge last October, and Students for Fair Admissions asked the justices to hear its appeal without waiting for resolution by the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals.