Four justices, including then-Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and future-Chief Justice Rehnquist, opined that Bakke should have prevailed solely on the basis of his claim of a violation of the above-cited Sec. 601 of Title VI in an opinion by Justice John Paul Stevens. Id. at 413-415 (footnotes omitted):

Title VI is an integral part of the far-reaching Civil Rights Act of 1964.... In the words of the House Report, Title VI stands for "the general principle that no person... be excluded from participation... on the ground of race, color, or national origin under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance."....

Petitioner contends, however, that exclusion of applicants on the basis of race does not violate Title VI if the exclusion carries with it no racial stigma. No such qualification or limitation of Sec. 601's categorical prohibition of "exclusion" is justified by the statute or its history.... (T)he proponents of the legislation gave repeated assurances that the Act would be "colorblind" in its application....

Justice Stevens concluded (Id. at 421):

The University's special admissions program violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by excluding Bakke from the Medical School because of his race. It is therefore our duty to affirm the judgment ordering Bakke admitted to the University....

These four votes, together with that of Justice Powell, constituted a majority for the affirmance of the California high court decision ordering Bakke admitted to U.C. Davis medical school. Justice Powell's decisive vote, of course, was on a different basis, namely, his finding of