Working from the premise established in Grutter v. Bollinger in 2003 that all students benefit from a diverse student body, they set out to augment the TTPP with a more traditional affirmative action admission program.
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“I am disappointed that the Supreme Court has ruled that students applying to the University of Texas can be treated differently due to their race or ethnicity”. At that time, he faulted the majority for deferring too much to the views of university officials. In that instance, the result would have been the same but without the Supreme Court endorsement offered by Kennedy Thursday.
The case, Fisher v. Texas, challenged the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions procedures.
“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”, he wrote. “Teaching students that they are defined by their race must not be part of the lesson plan at any public university – and PLF will keep fighting to end the practice of treating some students less equally than others”. A broad ruling by the high court rejecting affirmative action could have forced those institutions to revise their policies.
Eight states prohibit the use of race in public college admissions: Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
Abigail Fisher, a white woman at the center of the case, sued UT Austin for violating the Equal Protection Clause after the school denied her application in 2008, arguing that since the school considered race as a factor in admissions, she was disadvantaged in her application because she is white.
All UT did, he argues, is use “unsupported and noxious racial assumptions” to defend its position. Fisher claimed she was rejected while African-American applicants with lower grades and test scores were admitted.
“Just sending the message that this is lawful, that the Supreme Court did find this lawful, that alone helps” encourage diversity, she said.
This race-neutral policy opened the door for more Latino and black students to enroll at the Austin campus.
Brian Schwarz, a university staff member, said a diverse array of people on campus benefits the university. The state fills most of its freshman class by guaranteeing admission to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their Texas high school class. They said a limited use of affirmative action could be used to admit several dozen minority students each year who would likely do well at the Austin campus.
Fisher was not in the top 10% of her class, so she fell into the other portion of the potential freshman class.
Q: Who is Abigail Fisher?
The outcome of this case was altered by the absence of the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who died in February and staunchly opposed affirmative action programs.
The U.S. Supreme Court says the University of Texas can consider race when deciding which students to admit.
January 17, 2003 – The administration of President George W. Bush files a friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court, opposing the University of Michigan’s affirmative action program. Kennedy was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, and Sonia Sotomayor.
Justice Elena Kagan had recused herself because she has worked on the case before joining the court in 2009.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote a 51-page dissent and summarized it by saying the majority’s conclusion is “remarkable – and remarkably wrong”. “Something odd has happened since our prior decision in this case”, he said.
In Supreme Court parlance, race-conscious policies, like those giving ethnic minorities a college admissions advantage, must be “narrowly tailored” to serve a “compelling state interest”.
“I am sympathetic to the argument that all admissions should be color blind”, Schwarz said.
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The ruling is the second time this case has reached the high court.
