Allan Bakke, a white applicant twice rejected from UC Davis Medical School, challenged the school's 16-seat minority set-aside. In a fractured decision, Justice Powell's controlling opinion held that fixed racial quotas were unconstitutional but that race could be considered as one factor in a holistic admissions process aimed at achieving educational diversity. That compromise governed university admissions for 45 years until Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (2023) ended it.