Mock Trial: Bakke v. Board of Regents

In the case of Bakke v. Board of Regents, Bakke was denied acceptance to the University of California due to the fact that 16 out of every 100 places were held for African American students. The Board of Regents argued that African Americans deserved to receive reperations for the harsh conditions of slavery similar to how Japenese received reparations for their time in internment camps in America. They also argued that they made the policy only to remove segregation from the school since African Americans were segregated from whites everywhere else. On top of that, the Board of Regents backed their argument with the bible verse 1 Corinthians 12:12-31 basically stating why diversity is needed. Their next argument was a legal one based of of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which condemns segregation; all the university was trying to do was keep the school from being segregated. They also argued that Mr. Bakke may have received better grades than some of the African Americans admitted but that was only because the black school system could not educate their children as well as the white school system could therefore putting Mr. Bakke at an unfair advantage. They also argued that if Mr. Bakke's grades were so great than he should have been able to pass at least one of the 84 white kids admitted.

Mr. Bakke's team then took the stand and started their argument off saying that Mr. Bakke deserved admission to the school do to the fact that he did indeed receive higher grades than the other students and he was in fact more qualified for the university than they were. Mr. Bakke's team also accused the school of using reverse discrimination against Bakke because he is white. The team revisited their argument about Bakke being more qualified by stating that it is not fair to the African American students themselves because they will not be ready to attend this school. They also said the racial quota is condescending in the fact that it is telling black students that they can not make it to college on their own. They also argue that diversity is natural and one should not artificially create it. Bakke's final argument was that the school is teaching students that they do not need to meet the requirements to receive admission.

The final decision of the case was to stand by the case's orginal decision. The original decision is that the university can not have a racial quota but can have race as factor for diversity.