The AAUP joined, with thirty-nine other higher education associations, an amicus brief filed on August 1, 2022, in the US Supreme Court that supports the affirmative action admissions policies of Harvard and the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, which considered race and ethnicity as part of their holistic review of prospective students. The amicus brief argues that a diverse student body is essential to the educational objectives of colleges and universities. It also emphasizes the importance of academic freedom, which protects the rights of colleges and universities to accept students from a range of racial backgrounds. It points out that if race is excluded from admissions decisions, then the perspective of applicants, particularly Black Americans, for whom racial identity plays a major role in their lives will be silenced or ignored.