Supreme Court To Hear New Case On Race Based Affirmative Action

The Supreme Court has agreed to reconsider its earlier decision on race-based affirmative action. The new case, Fisher v. University of Texas, involves a white female student who was denied a slot at the flagship campus of the University of Texas because the university's race-conscious admission policy cost her a spot in the freshman class. The Court is going to hear the case during the term that begins in October, which means affirmative action could be an issue in the fall elections.

The Obama administration is supporting Texas in the case and has advised colleges and universities that under a SCOTUS 2003 decision, they may still make race-based decisions on admissions in pursuit of diversity.

The 2003 case, last time the Supreme Court ruled on affirmative action was a 5 to 4 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger, where Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote the majority opinion said that the University of Michigan law school could consider race in evaluating applicants, because government has "a compelling interest in obtaining the educational benefits that flow from a diverse student body."

Since then, O'Connor has been replaced by Samuel Alito, and new Justice Elena Kagen has recused herself because she was active in supporting the case while she was President Obama's Solicitor General.

The case involves one Abigail Noel Fisher. According to the Texas system, all graduates in the top ten percent of their high school classes qualify fro UT admission. The rest are put into a second group that considers, test scores, community service, leadership qualities, extracurricular activities and yes, race. Fisher fell into the second group and is claiming she was denied a spot in favor of a less qualified student because of her race. Her lawyer is also arguing that UT’s policy of automatically admitting the top 10 percent already brings in percentages of minority students that go far beyond the numbers in question in Grutter v. Bollinger. Around 30 per cent of the students enrolling in the freshman class in question qualified as minority.

A three judge panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the University of Texas, but the ruling sparked a number of objections from other judges on the 5th Circuit Court to the point where the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

I have always found it ironic that the cure for bigotry in favor of one group was somehow thought to be bigotry and quotas in favor of other groups.Aside from being a clear violation of the Fourteenth Amendment,it is also a violation of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which is still the law of the land.As Abraham Lincoln once famously said, I guess it depends on whose ox is being gored. And of course, what race it happens to be.