The quote below comes from the supreme court's ruling in regents of the university of california v. bakke (1978): racial and ethnic distinctions of any sort are inherently suspect, and thus call for the most exacting judicial examination. source: which statement explains why the supreme court made this declaration?

The court's decision gave some credence to allan bakke's claim that the university of california at davis had practiced some amount of reverse discrimination in denying him admittance to the medical school because he was not an economically or educationally disadvantaged member of one of four racial/ethnic groups eligible for their special admission program.  but the court was careful to note that race could be considered as a factor (among many factors) in college admissions, but that schools needed to practice great care in doing so.  having a basic quota system, such as uc davis reserving 16 spots out of 100 each year, was considered discriminatory.

  the constitution requires equal protection of the laws for all groups of people.