‘Major Win’: Candace Owens Reacts To SCOTUS Affirmative Action Ruling

Daily Wire host Candace Owens celebrated the Supreme Court striking down Affirmative Action programs as unconstitutional. 

The high court ruled Thursday that the race-based admissions programs at Harvard violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the University of North Carolina violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. The court voted six to three in the University of North Carolina case and six to two in the Harvard case with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, a Harvard graduate and former Harvard board member, recusing herself from the Harvard case.

“Wow!! Affirmative action, something I have spoken out against for the last 7 years, has FINALLY been struck down in a historic Supreme Court ruling,” Owens tweeted. “This is a MAJOR WIN in the strive for racial equality, removing the bigotry of low expectations against black students, while permitting Asian and white Americans an EQUAL chance to be rewarded for their hard work. RACE should never be a factor in deciding whether or not you are qualified for anything.”

Wow!! Affirmative action, something I have spoken out against for the last 7 years, has FINALLY been struck down in a historic Supreme Court ruling.

This is a MAJOR WIN in the strive for racial equality, removing the bigotry of low expectations against black students, while…

— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) June 29, 2023

The Daily Wire host has long criticized the race-based admissions policies established by Affirmative Action programs. Most recently, Owens went viral discussing her disapproval of Affirmative Action on an episode of Dr. Phil. 

“The policies are harmful also to the people they purport to help, and we have all of the evidence there to look at,” she said on the show. “These policies have never helped black Americans; it’s, just, basically, policies that are put in place to make people feel good.”

The court’s six conservative justices voted together on the decision with Chief Justice John Roberts writing the majority opinion. 

“Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it,” Roberts wrote.

“Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. But, despite the dissent’s assertion to the contrary, universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today,” the court’s opinion stated.

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Justice Clarence Thomas, a black man born into poverty during the Jim Crow Era, wrote a concurring opinion praising American exceptionalism and deriding victimhood. 

“The great failure of this country was slavery and its progeny,” Thomas wrote. “And, the tragic failure of this Court was its misinterpretation of the Reconstruction Amendments, as Justice Harlan predicted in Plessy. We should not repeat this mistake merely because we think, as our predecessors thought, that the present arrangements are superior to the Constitution.”

Owens also celebrated the ruling’s implications for Asian Americans, many of whom were negatively affected by Affirmative Action programs.

“What a great day for Asian Americans who have endured flagrant educational discrimination because…they do everything right,” Owens said. “So glad that you will finally get into the schools that you deserve to get into based on the hard work you put in.”  

Mairead Elordi contributed to this report.