Legal Definitions - Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

Grutter v Bollinger is a case that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court decided that a law school could consider a student's race when deciding whether to admit them or not. The Court said that the law school had a good reason for wanting to have a diverse student body. They believed that having students from different races would help everyone learn better.

For example, let's say that a law school only admitted students who were white. The students would all be very similar to each other. They would have similar backgrounds and experiences. But if the law school admitted students from different races, the students would be more diverse. They would have different backgrounds and experiences. This would make the learning experience better for everyone.

The Court said that it was okay for the law school to consider race when making admissions decisions, as long as they did it in a fair way. They couldn't just admit students based on their race alone. They had to look at other factors too, like their grades and test scores. But if two students were very similar in every way except for their race, the law school could choose to admit the student from the race that was less represented in the student body.