In a 4-3 decision handed down Thursday morning, the Supreme Court affirmed the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that the University of Texas lawfully uses affirmative action to reap “the educational benefits that flow from student body diversity”, according to the opinion of the court in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin.
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In a 4-3 opinion, a court majority held that Texas demonstrated its narrowly tailored policy of looking at race to fill one-quarter of its freshman classes was necessary because a strictly “nonracial approach” failed to produce enough student diversity.
People walk up to the U.S. Supreme Court building June 20, 2016 in Washington, DC.
Liberal Justice Elena Kagan recused herself because of her involvement in the case in her previous job as the administration’s solicitor general. Conservatives said the ruling endorsed discrimination based on race. And officials from some of Arkansas’ largest schools said race isn’t a factor when they select students.
“Our commitment to diversity is through outreach and recruitment”, she said, noting how the college has developed connections with various community groups and events. She sued claiming the school had discriminated against her based on her race in violation of the equal protection clause. By allowing the continued use of race as a factor in admissions, he argues, the court has discouraged colleges from finding other ways to promote diversity – such as through preferences for students who are poor.
So as far as Michigan’s public universities are concerned, nothing changes today because of this decision. She scored 1180 on her Saturday. “We follow the law so any student that graduates in the top ten percent of their graduating class has automatic admission at Texas Tech”, Hansard said.
“But what it does do (is) show that the Supreme Court is not poised to strike down race-conscious admissions programs as long as those programs are supported by sufficient evidence of their necessity and need”, the professor said.
Blum was behind a major challenge to the landmark Voting Rights Act that resulted in the court diminishing a key provision of the law, and he also led an unsuccessful challenge to states’ widespread practice of counting all their residents, not just those eligible to vote, in drawing legislative districts. Instead race is “a factor of a factor of a factor”, Kennedy wrote. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Associate Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented.
“This is affirmative action gone wild”, Alito said.
The University of MI also filed a brief in support of the University of Texas, said university spokesman Rick Fitzgerald.
The majority opinion, by Justice Anthony Kennedy, makes clear that upholding the admissions policy “does not necessarily mean the University may rely on that same policy without refinement”. Their decision then set a goal of doing away with such programs in 25 years.
Opponents of affirmative action looked for a silver lining, and they pointed to Kennedy’s warning that all university plans must be continually re-evaluated and that not all might be found constitutional. We hope that this decision will end the thirty-year campaign by anti-affirmative activists to dismantle efforts by colleges and universities to provide access and opportunity to students of all backgrounds….
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Eight states do not allow their public universities to consider race as a factor in the admissions process.
