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Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) is a nonprofit legal advocacy organization founded in 2014 by conservative activist Edward Blum for the purpose of challenging affirmative action admissions policies at schools.^[1]^[2] In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that affirmative action programs in college admissions (excepting military academies) are unconstitutional.

SFFA has been described by its opponents as an anti-affirmative action group that objects to the use of race as one of the factors in college admissions.^[3]

Lawsuits

SFFA is an offshoot of the Project on Fair Representation. SFFA's federal lawsuits have targeted Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Blum has set up websites to seek out plaintiffs.^[4]^[5]^[6]

Unlike the Fisher case, in which the plaintiff, Abigail Fisher, made herself public, the students rejected by Harvard and UNC have not revealed their identities because they want to shield themselves from potential retaliation.^[7]

Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College^[8] was dismissed in October 2019,^[9] and that ruling was subsequently upheld on appeal.^[10] In February 2021, however, SFFA petitioned the Supreme Court of the United States to review the case.^[11] In June 2023, the Supreme Court issued a landmark opinion that ruled affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional.^[12]

In September 2023, the SFFA filed a lawsuit challenging the use of race and ethnicity as admissions factors at the United States Military Academy, as the Supreme Court exempted military academies from its ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. In February 2024, the organization's case against West Point Academy for considering race in admissions was denied certiorari upon appeal to the Supreme Court after losses in local courts.^[13]

In December 2024, a federal judge ruled that the United States Naval Academy was exempt from the decision and could use race in their admission decisions, citing "military cohesion and other national security factors".^[14]