From the New York Times, I'm Katrin Benholdt, and this is The Daily.

The Supreme Court on Thursday overturned decades of precedent by striking down affirmative

action. Colleges and universities in America will no longer be able to use race as a factor

in the admissions process.

Today, our colleague Adam Liptak on that ruling and what it means for American society.

It's Friday, June 30th.

Adam, it's been another blockbuster term for the Supreme Court.

This decision today is one of the biggest in years.

Tell us about the ruling.

The Supreme Court rejected affirmative action in higher education.

Or more precisely, it said that race conscious admissions programs were unlawful.

And the court acted as we've seen many times in a classic six three divide.

The six Republican appointees in the majority, the three Democratic appointees in dissent,

an enormous decision both in its scope and even in its physical manifestation.

They wrote more than 200 pages, six different justices, wrote opinions.

And this is a major rejection of decades of important precedents.

At the same time, the court did leave open some ability sometimes for college and university

admissions personnel to take account of race at least in admissions essays.

Remind me of the details of the case.

It was brought by a group called Students for Fair Admissions,

which says it represents students who were disadvantaged by the admissions programs

at Harvard and the University of North Carolina.

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