In Fisher’s first case, the Supreme Court ruled that the lower courts were too deferential to school administrators and were required to look more closely at the evidence.
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The decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy held that race-conscious admissions standards at the flagship campus of the University of Texas system are lawful under the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.
UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy stated that the court’s decision “reaffirms the many steps we have taken at the University of Massachusetts Amherst to build a more diverse community focused on providing students from all backgrounds life-changing opportunities”.
When affirmative action policies are challenged in court, it does have a chilling effect, said Stella Flores, a professor of higher education at New York University.
The case began in 2008 after Fisher was denied admission. Fisher was recruited for the suit by Edward Blum, an opponent of racial preferences who has been successful in persuading the Supreme Court to hear cases challenging the use of race in education and politics.
UT Austin uses race as one factor in admitting one-fourth of its students each year, a practice that has enabled the university to boost admissions of African Americans and Hispanics.
“As Justice Kennedy stated in the court’s decision, promoting cross-racial understanding and preparing students for an increasingly diverse society and workforce are compelling goals for public universities”, he said.
Whether her race played a major role in her admission, or not, the Supreme Court’s ruling has allowed for the continued use of narrowly tailored affirmative action programs, and has acknowledged the importance of diversity for the objective of education to prevail. The court ruled that, in setting aside a fixed number of seats for minorities at its medical school, the university violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination by federally funded programs. In fact, the Texas legislature enacted one: The state automatically offers up to three-quarters of the university’s slots to students in Texas who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes.
When the court considered the case in 2013, Kennedy wrote the opinion that sent it back to lower courts for a closer examination, and it seemed that the majority was skeptical at the time that the admissions plan would survive. Our pursuit of excellence is grounded in the university’s public mission to provide the highest quality education for every student. Maryland actively recruits in areas with high concentrations of minority students, he said, and more than 40 percent of freshmen in the last two years have identified as minorities. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself due to her prior position as solicitor general during which she had worked on the case.
The court’s three more conservative justices dissented, and Justice Samuel Alito read portions of his 51-page dissent, more than twice as long as Kennedy’s opinion, from the bench. The decision was that the school may continue to consider race as a factor in admission of their students.
After Thursday’s decision, the answer is certainly “some” – though people will still debate in which direction that progress goes.
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The university has thus met its burden of showing that the admissions policy it used … was narrowly tailored.
