Final answer:
Allan Bakke applied to the medical school at the University of California, Davis, and later became the center of the landmark Supreme Court case, Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978, which barred racial quotas but upheld affirmative action.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student referred to in your book is Allan Bakke, who applied to the medical school at the University of California, Davis.
Allan Bakke, a white applicant, had higher test scores and college grade point average than some of the minority applicants who were admitted to the university.
He challenged his rejection in court, claiming it was solely based on his race, which led to a landmark Supreme Court case known as Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.
This 1978 decision barred the use of racial quotas that had set aside a certain number of places for minority candidates within each incoming class.
The Supreme Court's split decision upheld affirmative action but ruled that specific racial quotas violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Bakke was ordered to be admitted to the university.