Ethan Shanfeld In a critical ruling, the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina on Thursday, upsetting a 45-year precedent and putting an end to the systematic consideration of race in college admissions. Ruling that the programs at both schools violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution, the court voted 6-3 in the UNC case and 6-2 in the Harvard case, in which Justice Ketanji Brown was recused. The decision could have serious implications on the college admissions process, with the NAACP calling it a “willful ignorance of our reality.” The effects of the ruling could stretch as far as race-conscious workplace programs.