Identify two ways the Bakke decision set a precedent for judging future affirmative action cases

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978) was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court. It dealt with the legality of affirmative action programs that were implemented as part of college admission policies. Its defendors argued these sort of programs were a manner of making up for previous discrimination, while others state that they are actually creating discrimination again and that should be illegal as they violated the Fourteenth Amendment.

Bakke could not access to several universities because they considered him too old. The Supreme Court of California ordered the admission of Bakke after his sue, but the US Supreme Court ended up taking the case.

There was a division of opinions among the Supreme Court justices. Bakke was in the end admitted because the justices considered that the program of the University of California went too far. In opposition, the court stated that affirmative action programs were permitted by the Constitution and found that diversity in classrooms had to be considered a compelling state interest.

In practice, the effect of this sentence was that most affirmative action programs continued operating.