The oral arguments for the Supreme Court’s affirmative action case were heard today and included the devil incarnate Justice Antonin Scalia suggesting that black students are better off going to easier schools so as to better account for their tiny brains.
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U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, shown here speaking at the University of Minnesota in October, raised eyebrows when he questioned if some black students should be at elite colleges.
Since he is generally considered to be the Court’s swing justice, this bodes well for those who would like to see the University’s admissions policy upheld, although Elena Kagan’s recusal (she was involved in the case during her time as solicitor general) makes a 4-4 tie a real possibility.
Former University of Texas applicant Abigail Fisher contends that the school’s discriminatory admission policies led to her rejection, even though her qualifications surpassed those of many admitted minority students.
The court appears closely divided in the case. It reviewed the case back in 2013 but essentially said “lol not my problem” and sent it to a lower court, where in 2014 the court ruled in favor of the University. Following the case, the Texas Legislature passed the Top 10 Percent law, which automatically admits students in the top 10 percent of their high school class to a Texas public university.
The school said the majority of those admissions were white, non-Hispanic students, but adds the operation of the holistic review program did increase the percentage of African Americans by 1 percent and that of Hispanic students by 2.5 percent.
What isn’t controversial – even among supporters of racial preferences – is that there would be fewer minority students at top-tier institutions if admissions programs didn’t treat race as what the Supreme Court has called a “plus” factor.
The case, which rehashes a 2013 case of the same name, asks whether race-based considerations in college admissions violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Abigail Fisher, who challenged the use of race in college admissions, at the USA supreme court on Wednesday.
“If this court rules that the University of Texas can’t consider race, we know exactly what will happen: diversity will plummet, especially among African Americans”, warned Garre. The court sided with the university so Fisher appealed to the high court for the second time.
It’s silly for advocates of affirmative action to dissemble about this.
“I’m saying R-A-C-E”, said Breyer, after Rein seemed to avoid multiple questions on whether the use of race as one of many criteria can remain constitutional.
1995 – The University of MI rejects the college application of Jennifer Gratz, a top high school student in suburban Detroit who is white.
The court’s swingman, Justice Anthony Kennedy – already no fan of affirmative action – hinted near the end of argument that the time may have come to put the Texas policy out to pasture. The state’s Top Ten Percent Law, enacted in 1997 in response to a court decision, requires the school to admit three-quarters of its freshman class each year exclusively on the basis of high school class rank. In states with affirmative action bans, only one school, Florida International University, has at least the same proportion of Hispanic students as the state’s college-age population. The use of race in admissions sometimes turns into racial quotas similar to caste-based reservations in India, and hurts Indian Americans and other Asians. “The idea is that if a student is admitted to a school they are not academically prepared for then they will not perform up to their own potential”.
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Jennell Benson is a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin.
