Justice Sonia Sotomayor said that she benefited from affirmative action and noted that college campuses are still rife with racism.
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“They are having racial incidents on campuses where students of colour are complaining that they feel isolated”. “What more do they need?” He said that “there are those” who claim that African Americans do not benefit from getting admitted in top universities like the University of Texas because they do not perform well in such institutions.
When the justices first heard Fisher’s case in 2012, the give-and-take during oral arguments was contentious and the justices appeared ready to strike down the admissions policy. The remaining 20 percent are selected through what the school calls a “holistic” review process that factors in test scores, extracurricular activities, accomplishments, work experience, socioeconomic status, community service, family responsibilities and race. The university’s current freshman class is 22 percent Hispanic and less than 5 percent black. That could mean that the Texas admissions plan is in peril and that affirmative action at colleges and universities around the nation may be in trouble as well. While about 70% of white high school graduates enroll in college, only 65% of black graduates do, according to FiveThirtyEight. She asserts the unconstitutionality of using race as an admissions factor.
The court will rule in the case by June.
Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s only African American, asked no questions, but he has made it clear in the past that he opposes affirmative action.
A decision in the case isn’t expected until the end of the Supreme Court’s term next summer, but The New York Times said today’s arguments suggest the outcome might be bad for affirmative action supporters.
The case in question is about a white student who is challenging the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions policies because she didn’t get in.
“Secondly, how is it improving diversity in your student body?”
Samuel Alito pressed the university to explain how it would meet court demands for affirmative action to be gradually phased out: “Are you going to hit the deadline?” Roberts asked Garre, who would not provide a date. “Is this going to be done, in your view, in 12 years?”
Chief Justice John Roberts and other conservative justices came out against the affirmative action policy, but none with quite as much vitriol as Antonin Scalia, who wondered if the minority students now accepted into UT deserve to be there.
Conservative Justice Antonin Scalia suggested some black and Hispanic students could be hurt by the program as they could be better off attending “slower track” schools where they could prosper: “I don’t think…it stands to reason that it’s a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible”, Scalia said.
Scalia did not say that he personally believed that black students are better off at less-rigorous schools; he introduced the suggestions by saying “There are those who contend that…”, and was reportedly referencing an amicus brief written by a UCLA law professor. However, conflicting research has found that when students’ educational backgrounds are taken into consideration, mismatch theory does not exist, indicating that quality high schools have the primary impact.
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The next year, Fisher appealed the decision.
