Remember the Supreme Court upheld the legality of affirmative action in 2016 in Fisher v. UT-Austin, and two lower courts upheld the legality of affirmative action in this particular decision.

What changed is the make-up of the court; otherwise, apparently affirmative action's unconstitutionality was just realized like a revelation from God and every previous court (federal and Supreme) was wrong.

Racial rancor, and racism in general -- anti black racism in particular -- has probably increased since 2003; at least in the public sphere - hopefully this ruling is not a part of that milieu.