WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Senator Rick Scott released the below statement following the Supreme Court’s decision striking down race-based college admissions processes.

Senator Rick Scott said, “Today’s Supreme Court decision was the right one for our nation and should have been 9-0. Any discrimination on the basis of race is wrong and flat-out unconstitutional. The failed experiment of affirmative action had the inverse of its intended effect of equal opportunity. For decades, this failed policy did nothing but pick and choose students based upon their race to fit a specific quota, disenfranchising others in the process. Absolutely no person should be judged on anything but their merits, the content of their character and qualifications – that’s what we should stand for as a free and great nation: not giving a damn what anyone’s skin color is. And now, the entire federal government should follow suit and make sure NO government policy is based on race and NO American is judged on their race or ethnicity. Period.”

Last year, Senator Rick Scott joined Senator Ted Cruz and several of their colleagues in an amicus brief to the Supreme Court for the cases of Students for Fair Admissions vs. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions vs. University of North Carolina. At both schools, admissions policies have employed explicit racial preferences and considerations that stereotype and negatively impact certain applicants in a manner prohibited by federal law and the U.S. Constitution. Today’s Supreme Court opinion fulfills the promise of Equal Protection under the law in our Constitution, and resoundingly declares such racially discriminatory admissions practices must immediately stop. 

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