Yesterday (Dec. 9), Scalia argued in favor for a white woman in the case Fisher v. University of Texas-Austin after she said her race prevented her from getting accepted to the school.
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While not posing a question directly, Scalia said he questioned whether admitting more black students would benefit them or the university.
A white student named Abigail Fisher was denied acceptance to University of Texas and claims it’s because she’s white. During some points, court observers believed Kennedy seemed to be considering remanding the case to a lower court, as it did in 2013 when the case was first argued in front of the Supreme Court.
This viewpoint by one of the nation’s top judicial voices comes as colleges across America are dealing with high levels of racial incidents and confrontations on campus.
“The fact that he holds these beliefs will inform his decision-making in this case and in cases before it”, said Georgia State University law professor Tanya Washington. African Americans have achieved positions of prominence-including Justice Scalia’s colleague, Justice Clarence Thomas.
The Nevada senator said the idea that black students should be pushed out of top universities into lesser schools is “unacceptable”.
The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has twice agreed with the University of Texas policy, finding that that program makes limited use of race, and it conforms to the university’s intent to promote a racially and culturally diverse student body. At such schools, blacks “are not grouped at the bottom of the class”, the brief said.
He and his fellow Supreme Court judges are now weighing a landmark case about positive discrimination – known as affirmative action in the US.
Scalia continued by alleging that most black scientists don’t come from competitive schools like UT.
When a university lawyer spoke of the importance of classroom diversity, Roberts asked, “What unique perspective does a minority student bring to a physics class?” “Maybe it ought to have fewer”.
During the Wednesday affirmative action arguments, Scalia suggested that some black students belong at “slower-track” universities.
But Gregory Garre, an attorney for the university, said that diversity languished at the University of Texas in the period where race-blind holistic admissions, plus the top 10 percent program were used. Elizabeth Wydra, chief counsel at the Constitutional Accountability Center, said it was clear after today’s argument that the case comes down to Kennedy. “That is why it is called strict scrutiny”, said Bert Rein.
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U.S. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, who was there for the federal government arguing in support of UT, had a brief opportunity to respond to that suggestion idea before his time was up. A tie vote would affirm the lower Court’s decision that approved UT’s plan but would not provide any precedent. Still, he has not joined with more conservative justices in a ruling that would flatly forbid affirmative action. “In the state of Texas, there is a significant difference in one’s earnings if you attend the University of Texas or not”.
