From the historic campus of Hillsdale College in Hillsdale, Michigan, where the good, the true, and the beautiful are taught, nurtured, and honored, this is the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, bringing the activity and education of the college to listeners across the country.

When every day you're going to the grocery store and your groceries are costing a ton,

when every day it's difficult for you to fill up your car, when every day you look out and you see terrible

headlines about what's going on around the world and believe that America isn't playing its role, those are the things that kind of really

make Americans depressed, as it were, and furious with their leadership.

This is your host, Scott Bertram. Welcome to the Radio Free Hillsdale Hour, part of the Hillsdale College Podcast Network.

And that's Kim Strassel, author of the new book, The Biden Malays, How America Bounces

back from Joe Biden's dismal repeat of the Jimmy Carter hears. We'll talk in-depth with Kim

about the new book coming up a little bit later in today's program.

First, we're joined by Dr. Adam Carrington, Associate Professor of Politics and William and

Patricia Lamoth Chair in the U.S. Constitution at Hillsdale College. Dr. Carrington,

thanks for joining us. Glad to be here. Recapping a bit of the most recent Supreme Court term. And in this conversation

today, we'll talk about the affirmative action cases that were decided by the Supreme Court this

past term. Two separate cases, one involving Harvard and North Carolina. What specifically was at

issue in these cases? And what were the outcomes that conservatives were hoping to see?

Yes, they ended up being parallel in that they were both about whether race or the degree to which race could be used in admissions for college applications.

And for North Carolina being a state school, it was the equal protection clause.

Can you take race into account as a state school and not violate that part of the Constitution?

For Harvard, it was the fact, even though they were private school, that they had particular

funding from the government and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 limited how race could be used in those kind of government funds.

The conservatives, if you wanted a perfect outcome for them, it would have been, for them, it would

have been three parts. One is that both programs would be struck down as violating the Civil Rights

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