Bureaucratic Inertia or Legal Responsiveness? College Admissions Officers' Behavior Before and After the Affirmative Action Ban

How do street-level bureaucrats respond when courts reshape public policy? The 2023 Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action altered the legal framework around college admissions, prompting speculation about its implications for administrative behavior and minority representation on campus. Yet existing work offers limited evidence on whether -- and how -- bureaucrats adapt to judicial interventions. We investigate whether college admissions officers shift behavior in response to the ruling. We report results from two original field experiments with over 3,000 U.S. admissions offices. In Study 1, we recontact institutions from a 2018 audit testing responsiveness to Black and White applicants, enabling a pre-post comparison. In Study 2, we randomly vary applicant race (Asian, Black, White) and references to the Court’s decision. Across both studies, we find no evidence of racial bias, even when the ruling is salient. Together, these null results suggest limits to the judiciary’s influence on bureaucratic behavior.