Colleges using race to determine whether minorities are admitted are violating the law.

This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that have the potential to finally end race-based college admissions in the United States. Students for Fair Admissions has filed nearly identical lawsuits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, accusing both institutions of racial discrimination in their admissions practices.

Basically, these two schools got caught doing what hundreds of colleges and universities are doing across the country and have been doing for years. They cook their admissions processes by lowering the bar for certain minorities to achieve a racially diverse campus. Equality of result over equality of opportunity. Practicing racism to “correct,” or maybe even overcorrect, past racism. Students for Fair Admissions was formed to combat Harvard’s discrimination against qualified Asian candidates in favor of recruiting more black and Hispanic students who are less qualified.

Harvard and UNC naturally claim that they have done no wrong. The Washington Post perfectly encapsulated the view of the Left on the issue, writing that the pursuit of “diversity justifies some intrusion on the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection, which generally forbids the government to make decisions based on race.” Wow.

The Supreme Court in the past has not exactly been very diligent about handling the issue of raced-based college admissions. In 2003, the High Court allowed race to be a “plus” factor for colleges seeking to construct a diverse student body. In 2016, it affirmed a lower court ruling that upheld the University of Texas’s race “conscious” admissions policy.

Things might be different this time. Chief Justice John Roberts doesn’t like to upset precedent, but he really doesn’t like racial quotas. He stated in 2006, “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.” Also illegal, thanks to the 14th Amendment and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

And let’s not forget unworkable. Race-based admissions, like all the other programs that were spawned out of affirmative action, have caused more harm than good. The American college campus has never been more fractured. People are segregated by their ethnicity and race, with different clubs, different living quarters, even different graduations for minorities. This doesn’t lead to a united society; it only leads to more segregation.

Race-based admissions also does the most damage among those it purports to help. A significant portion of black male students drop out of college degree programs that they probably shouldn’t have been accepted to in the first place. They would have fared better in different programs. To the Left, to suggest this is racist. Yet colleges will lower admissions criteria for minorities because they know that some of them wouldn’t get in otherwise. Why the charade? It’s of no use if the person doesn’t even finish college, falsely led to believe that they didn’t have what it takes or that the racist system kept them down. Then again, perhaps by “racist system” they mean the failing inner-city public schools in which blacks are often trapped by Democrats. Either way, the one who flunks out ends up justifiably bitter for the experience.

Harvard claims that ending race-based admissions would cut the black and Hispanic student population in half. Which also means that half the black and Hispanic students at Harvard are there because of their race. Can knowing that feel good? It wouldn’t seem so.

Leftists are using this equity crusade to divide us all into groups, and it’s not because they want everyone to feel comfort in familiarity. It’s so they can control us better. But their ruse can be easily defeated.

Despite the rhetoric, a large majority of the American public is not big on quotas. Last year, voters in the People’s Republic of California soundly defeated an attempt to reintroduce quotas into the state university system. And comfortable majorities of Americans across racial groups believe that race should not be a factor in college admissions.

The people don’t want racial quotas in college admissions. The students don’t benefit from them. They’re illegal in the eyes of the law. And that’s another thing. The 14th Amendment and the 1964 Civil Rights Act are among the finest documents ever written to preserve the liberty and dignity of individuals. Maybe it’s time we let the law have its day.