“He basically said that affirmative action puts blacks into schools that are too good for them”.
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“Now is not the time and this is not the case to roll back student body diversity in America”, he added, in apparent reference to a recent surge of concern about racial attacks on campuses such as the University of Missouri.
Their skepticism about it was on display during more than 90 minutes in a packed courtroom. The university’s supplemental admissions policy, targeted in the lawsuit, looks beyond grades to a range of factors including race.
In his comments Scalia was referring to a legal brief from affirmative action opponents on research showing that minority students admitted to competitive universities through affirmative action can often struggle to succeed if they don’t have top academic abilities.
“What unique perspectives does a minority bring to physics class?” Her absence creates the possibility of a 4-4 split.
The Supreme Court’s decision to revisit the case this term struck many supporters of affirmative action as an ominous sign, one suggesting that a 12-year-old societal compromise was in peril.
Garre tried to interject, but the justice continued.
The most vocal supporter of the Texas program was Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor who listed some of the reasons university officials gave in favor of increased diversity; including concerns about race-related incidents on campus and minority students complaining about feeling isolated.
The Nevada senator said the idea that black students should be pushed out of top universities into lesser schools is “unacceptable”.
The case was sent back to the appeals court.
Justice Antonin Scalia said that perhaps the university “ought to have fewer” minority students.
On Wednesday, Justice Samuel Alito said the first part of the plan should suffice to produce educational diversity. Writing for the court, Kennedy said universities must show that “available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice”.
The conservative-leaning Supreme Court has previously ruled against racial remedies in voting, employment and other areas of the law. That would run counter to so many other background factors that are still allowed to be considered including the place an applicant lives, their test scores, and extracurricular activities – to exclude race from this equation is absolutely unacceptable. They seemed to be suggesting that a defeat for Texas would limit admissions options and diversity throughout American higher education, not just at the University of Texas. White students make up less than half the school’s freshmen.
“They want to further refine and restrict the use of race in admissions to public colleges, or they want to eliminate or outright ban the use of race”, says appellate attorney Byron Henry.
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The Obama administration, dozens of colleges and numerous nation’s largest businesses support Texas in defending its program. Just six percent of the student body is black.
