Liberals deliver scathing dissents after the conservative majority ends race-based college admissions.

The White House has been preparing for months for a potential Supreme Court ruling gutting affirmative action, even as President Joe Biden expressed optimism late last year that the court would uphold consideration of race in college admissions.

A looming deadline for airlines to retrofit their planes with updated technology could potentially disrupt some flights during one of the heaviest travel weekends of the year.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said he “strongly, strongly disagree[d” with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down the use of affirmative action programmes in college admissions decisions and condemned the six-justice majority that did so as “not a normal court”. Mr Biden’s harsh words for the highest court in the land came in response to a reporter’s query on whether the court was acting as a “rogue court,” just after he addressed the landmark decision in brief remarks before departing the White House for New York. Speaking from the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing, the president echoed the dissenting Justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, in his reaction to the ruling, which ends the long-standing precedent that allowed colleges and universities to use affirmative action to help establish a diverse group of accepted students. “Discrimination still exists in America. Today’s decision does not change that,” Mr Biden said in a brief press conference. He added: “I believe our colleges are stronger when they’re racially diverse. Our nation is stronger because we are tapping into the full range of talent in this nation. We cannot let this decision be the last word.” The rulings come from two consolidated cases, Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina and Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard College. Both cases were brought forth by the anti-affirmative action organisation Students for Fair Admissions. That group, which is headed by conservative legal strategist Edward Blum, has for years made attempts to give the court’s GOP-appointed majority a chance to gut previous court precedents which have been used to justify limited use of race-based preferences in college admissions. While the court upheld such programmes in a decision nearly two decades, ago, the newly-emboldened conservative majority swept away any legal justification for them in Thursday’s opinions. In a 6-3 and 6-2 decision, the Court’s conservative majority sided with Students for Fair Admissions claiming the use of race-conscious admissions was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment. Now, higher education institutions will no longer be allowed to consider race as a factor in admissions. Instead, students who wish to have their race or culture considered in their application will have to volunteer the information like in their personal essay. At the end of the press conference, Mr Biden responded to a question about the court’s decision to strike down a long-standing precedent: “This is not a normal Court.” Leaders from Harvard said in a letter that they would “comply” with the court’s decision but emphasised that “deep and transformative teaching, learning, and research depend upon a community comprising people of many backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences.” Mr Biden said he is directing the Department of Education to analyse best practices for high education institutions to create more inclusive and diverse student bodies without using race as a conscious factor in admissions and recruiting. The Harvard Black Students Association called the court’s decision, “detrimental”, adding that it “poses a significant threat to the future of the Black community on and beyond our campus.” “It is evident that the college application system cannot maintain holistic evaluation without taking into consideration how race profoundly influences our experiences, perspectives, and identities in multifaceted ways,” the Harvard Black Students Association wrote. Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement: “In a society still scarred by the wounds of racial disparities, the Supreme Court has displayed a willful ignorance of our reality.” Discussions around affirmative action have generated debate among Republicans and Democrats for years. Those in support of it believe it is necessary to create fair and equal opportunity for students of color because higher education institutions have failed at creating diverse student bodies. Those against affirmative action believe it puts other students, like white or Asian American students, at a disadvantage. Former president Donald Trump celebrated the ruling calling it “everyone was waiting for” in a post on Truth Social. “We’re going back to all merit-based – and that’s the way it should be!” Mr Trump wrote. Mr Trump appointed three of the six conservative Justices on the Court while serving as President of the United States – Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Mr Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, also expressed support for the Court’s decision, writing on Twitter, “I am honored to have played a role in appointing three of the Justices that ensured today’s welcomed decision.” He added: “There is no place for discrimination based on race in the United States, and I am pleased that the Supreme Court has put an end to this egregious violation of civil and constitutional rights in admissions processes, which only served to perpetuate racism.” The ruling will likely have repercussions beyond higher education institutions, extending to elementary, middle and high schools as well as workplaces and more as it opens a door for challenges to racial diversity programs. Read More Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson delivers searing civil rights lesson in dissent to affirmative action ruling How the government that promised to ‘stop the boats’ has lost control of its immigration policy Clarence Thomas says he doesn’t have a ‘clue’ what diversity means as Supreme Court takes aim at affirmative action One year after the anti-abortion ruling, the White House keeps a spotlight on the issue

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The Supreme Court says colleges and universities can no longer take race into consideration as a specific basis for granting admission, a landmark decision that overturns long-standing precedent that has benefited Black and Latino students in higher education.

The decision strikes down decades-old policies viewed as a measure to increase diversity.

A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked Kentucky Senate Bill 150, which would have prohibited transgender minors from receiving several forms of gender-affirming care. The ruling stops the law from taking effect while other courts hear challenges to the law.

Jaden Smith has opened up about his use of psychedelic drugs, admitting that his mother, Jada Pinkett Smith, "made the first step." Psychedelics (also known as hallucinogens) are known to produce changes in perception, mood and cognitive processes. Drugs such as LSD, DMT, ayahuasca and magic mushrooms are among the well-known psychoactive substances that often give the hallucinogenic experience. During a Psychedelic Science conference in Denver last week, the 24-year-old called the experience "profound and beautiful" and went on to suggest it helped him and his siblings get along better. Speaking about how he was introduced to psychedelics, Jaden said: "I think it was my mom actually, that was really the first one to make that step for the family." "It was just her for a really, really long time and then eventually, it just trickled and evolved, and everybody found it in their own ways," he added. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Jaden went on to say: "Siblings can argue so much and fight so much, and lord knows me and my siblings have done so much of that in the past. "But the level of love and empathy that I can feel for them inside of the [psychedelic] experiences and outside of the experiences has been something that’s profound and beautiful." Psychedelics are illegal in the UK but have been around since ancient times and often have mystical and spiritual associations, according to the Alcohol and Drug Foundation. They can also carry risk, like any other drug – especially if a person experiences a "bad trip." This can lead to unpredictable and, in some cases, dangerous or life-threatening behaviour. There have since been various studies into the effects of micro-dosing and mental health to see whether they positively impact the brain's serotonin receptors. However, "as a class A drug, they have the most restrictions in place," Detox Plus UK explains. "This makes it impossible and unethical for the needed research to be conducted on humans as opposed to animals." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Will Dunham WASHINGTON Scientists on Wednesday unveiled evidence that gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of