For just as long, critics of affirmative action have questioned whether race-conscious admissions policies are fair or warranted. The Supreme Court weighed in on Thursday, striking down affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. In 2014, he founded Students for Fair Admissions, the group behind several major Supreme Court challenges to affirmative action - including the cases that led to Thursday's decision. Connerly persuaded his fellow regents to ban affirmative action. He concluded that affirmative action as part of an approach that aimed to remedy historic disadvantages and did not favor unqualified applicants over qualified ones could still be used.

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Persons: EDWARD BLUM Edward Blum, Blum, LEE BOLLINGER, Lee Bollinger, Society's, Bollinger, WARD CONNERLY, Jim Crow, Pete Wilson, Connerly, CHRISTOPHER EDLEY, Bill Clinton, Christopher Edley Jr, Clinton, Edley, Joseph Ax, Gabriella Borter, Sharon Bernstein, Donna Bryson, Leslie Adler Organizations: Harvard, University of North, Fair, University of Michigan, U.S, Bollinger, Columbia University, Universities, Republican, Regents, University of California, UC, American, JR, UC Berkeley's, Thomson Locations: University of North Carolina, U.S ., Grutter, Michigan, California, Louisiana, Sacramento