The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Thursday that colleges can consider race a factor to achieve diversity did not break new ground but the University of Rochester official overseeing admissions says it is important that the justices affirmed existing rules.
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Conservative legal activist Edward Blum, a Fisher family friend who has long backed lawsuits against racial policies, enlists Abigail to challenge the university’s admissions program.
That case, also called Fisher v. University of Texas, was decided by the Supreme Court in 2013.
“Does he really want to be the justice who tries to get rid of affirmative action?” he said. “But still, it remains an enduring challenge to our Nation’s education system to reconcile the pursuit of diversity with the constitutional promise of equal treatment and dignity”. Thursday’s decision could help the universities in those cases. Indirectly, the case is likely to further discussions about what higher education institutions should be doing to increase diversity on their campuses.
The justices upheld a 2014 ruling by the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals that had endorsed the school’s “limited use of race in its search for holistic diversity”.
In a 4-3 ruling, the court said race-conscious policies could be used “as a means of obtaining the educational benefits that flow from student body diversity”.
President Barack Obama praised the decision, saying it doesn’t guarantee equal outcomes but promotes equal opportunities.
“One presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton, is poised to populate the Court with liberal nominees who believe the Constitution is a ‘living document, ‘ while the other, Donald Trump, appears woefully ignorant about the issues involved” and “is ideologically erratic”. The state’s flagship public university enrolls most freshmen through a program guaranteeing admission to students in roughly the top 10 percent of their high school classes. MI is one of eight states that has forbidden the consideration of race in college admissions. She has since graduated from Louisiana State University.
On the first occasion Fisher’s case reached the Supreme Court, the justices sent the matter back to a lower court.
“Today’s decision recognizes that the formula for educational excellence is elusive, that it changes over time and that it is usually affected by context”, McDonough said.
Having a diverse campus, Burdick noted, benefits everyone by providing a college experience in which students come from different backgrounds. “No policy is ideal forever, but right now, the process by which the University of Texas admits students and the affirmative action programs in place are legal and allowable under the law”.
Three other judges – Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas – disagreed.
Justice Elena Kagan recused herself because of her involvement with the case during her tenure as Solicitor General. The case, Fisher v. University of Texas, was being watched carefully by affirmative action supporters as well as universities and colleges across the country.
“Today’s ruling comes as something of a surprise”, said Steve Vladeck, CNN contributor and professor of law at American University Washington College of Law.
“We do really operate on a race-blind admissions process, mostly because our admissions standards are so accessible”, she says.
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Officials at both Amherst College and the University of MA are praising Thursday’s Supreme Court vote that upheld the affirmative action program at the University of Texas.
