Supreme Court Agrees to Reconsider Use of Race in College Admission Decisions
The Supreme Court said Tuesday it will reconsider whether affirmative action may be considered when public universities choose which students to admit, revisiting a 2003 decision that allows race as a factor in admission decisions.
The court will hear a white student’s claims that the University of Texas’s race-conscious admission policy cost her a spot in the freshman class. The justices will hear the case in the term that begins in October, making it likely that affirmative action will be an issue in the fall elections.
The Obama administration has supported Texas in the case and has advised colleges and universities that under the court’s 2003 decision, they may still make some race-based decisions to expand campus diversity.
Opponents of affirmative action hope that the current court, more conservative than the one that made the 2003 decision, will rule out the use of race.
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who wrote the 5 to 4 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger , was replaced by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who in past decisions has opposed the use of race in education decisions. And one of the court’s liberals, Justice Elena Kagan, has recused herself from the Texas case, presumably because of her previous job as President Obama’s solicitor general.
In the 2003 decision, O’Connor said the University of Michigan’s law school could consider race as part of a holistic evaluation of an applicant. O’Connor said government had a compelling interest in diversity, including seeking a “critical mass” of minority students.
Despite the go-ahead, many states — California, for instance — do not allow admissions officials to consider race in their decisions.