In the wake of the Supreme Court decision that struck down race-conscious admissions, we should recognize that, in practice, affirmative action mattered a great deal for very few and very little for most.

Yes, the decision will likely dramatically reduce the racial diversity of incoming classes at highly selective institutions like Harvard, Stanford and the University of North Carolina.

But because affirmative action only opened a tiny window of access to America’s most elite institutions, the ruling will make little difference for most college students.

Just after lunch on a Thursday afternoon in late April, a chilly breeze and overcast sky have mostly blocked the sun from smiling on the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara. The assistant director for diversity initiatives, Marcus Mathis, and a student helper from one of the school’s fraternities pile used paper plates, plastic utensils, and waste into huge trash bags.

The Supreme Court handed down several key rulings this past week that dismayed liberals. Chief among them was the court’s decision to disallow colleges and universities from using race or ethnicity as a specific factor in admissions. The court also found that President Joe Biden’s student debt forgiveness plan was unconstitutional.

Unlike last year, when the Supreme Court greatly upset liberals by overturning Roe v. Wade, this year’s big rulings by the justices are unlikely to spark a major backlash from the public at large.

Shortly after the Supreme Court declared affirmative action college admission policies unconstitutional, President Joe Biden said his administration would direct the Department of Education to scrutinize how "practices like legacy admissions … expand privilege instead of opportunity."

The department could start by examining how politically connected families like the Bidens get their children into Ivy League schools.

Say what you like about progressives in America and their nebulous calls for “racial equity”, but they got one thing right: college admissions have always been a zero-sum game. With limited places at the prestigious universities and tens of millions of applicants, some sort of discrimination in deciding who gets accepted is inevitable. The question is: on what grounds?

Nearly a decade has passed since Students for Fair Admissions, or S.F.F.A., first filed a lawsuit against Harvard University over its race-based admissions policies. During that time, not much has changed about the particulars of the case, nor how they have been processed by both the courts and the public. The announcement of the Supreme Court’s ultimate ruling in the case—a 6–3 decision that effectively ends affirmative action in college admissions and most likely beyond—did not contain any surprises.

President Joe Biden slammed the Supreme Court’s ruling undercutting affirmative action programs in higher education during a speech at the White House on Thursday.

“This is not a normal court,” Biden said in response to a question from a reporter following his remarks.

President Joe Biden slammed the Supreme Court for reversing a college admissions affirmative action precedent a year after overturning Roe v. Wade.

"Today, the court once again walked away from decades of precedent,” Biden said at the White House on Thursday. "The court has effectively ended affirmative action in college admissions, and I strongly, strongly disagree with the court's decision."

President Biden on Thursday weighed in on the Supreme Court following its decision to upend affirmative action in college admissions, calling it “not normal.”

“This is not a normal court,” the president said at the White House when asked whether thought the institution had gone “rogue.”

The president later explained what he meant, saying in an interview with MSNBC that the Court “has done more to unravel basic rights and basic decisions than any Court in recent history.”

The Supreme Court says American colleges can no longer consider race in their admissions decisions. Instead, they can try to build racially diverse campuses through less-direct means. Experience suggests that is going to be a hard slog.