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Saturday, July 02, 2016

Supreme Court Upholds Consideration of Race

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the University of Texas at Austin’s consideration of race and ethnicity in college admissions. Some parts of the decision in the case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, related to features unique to that university.

But other parts of the case will likely apply to admissions and financial aid policies in most of American higher education.

The court ruled that the primary reason that the plaintiff in the case was denied admission to the university was not its consideration of race in admissions, but its “10 percent plan,” in which the top 10 percent of high school graduates are admitted to the public college or university of their choice.

The university does have “a continuing obligation” to meet the legal test of “strict scrutiny” by “periodically reassessing the admission program’s constitutionality, and efficacy, in light of the school’s experience and the data it has gathered since adopting its admissions plan, and by tailoring its approach to ensure that race plays no greater role than is necessary to meet its compelling interests,” the decision says.

At the time that the plaintiff was rejected for admission, however, the decision said, the university had met that burden.

“The record here reveals that the university articulated concrete and precise goals -- e.g., ending stereotypes, promoting ‘cross-racial understanding,’ preparing students for ‘an increasingly diverse workforce and society,’ and cultivating leaders with ‘legitimacy in the eyes of the citizenry’ -- that mirror the compelling interest this court has approved in prior cases,” said the decision.

The decision was written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, generally considered a swing vote on many issues, but who has consistently in the past been skeptical of education policies based on race. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

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7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Tell it like it is Quota system. I forgot you can't say this and be politically correct.
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Anonymous said...

If admission isn't based solely on performance then it's racist.

Anonymous said...

Let stupid unqualified kids into a college so they fill the quota for race, but they are so dumb they fail and don't graduate, sounds like a plan.

Anonymous said...

So can I deny you a promotion because you don't deserve it or am I forced to give you one because less than 10% of my managers are minority? Any time an organization is forced to comply with something stupid, it always ends bad.

Anonymous said...

And that's how we ended up with Marylyn Mosby.

Anonymous said...

Affirmative action is nothing but an admission of inferiority.
THEY, need an advantage to make the playing field fair.
Why? Is it general lack of intelligence in that community?

Anonymous said...

1:17 the State of Maryland does it all the time. Especially ECI. I won a case with several years back pay. That did not stop them. They still do it consistently. That is why the State of Maryland is so top heavy in the administration positions. Their positions are double what they should be because of this type of incompetent / quota promotions.