Supreme Court to Address Affirmative Action for First Time in Nine Years

The United States Supreme Court, it announced today, has granted certiorari in the Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin case, and will try the affirmative action case in the upcoming docket.

Abigail Fisher, who is white, was denied admission to Texas’ largest university and subsequently sued the university in 2008 for making what she believes was a decision based more on race than on merit. She believes she was denied admission because she is white, according to an October article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Another white student joined the suit against the university, and has since dropped out.

Fisher and her fellow petitioners first asked the court to hear the case in September. Since the suit was filed in 2008, the case has come before several courts. In 2009, a court narrowly upheld the university’s admissions policies by a 9-7 margin, using the precedent of two cases heard in 2003. In those cases it was determined that race can be considered in admissions decisions, though it can not be the sole factor. Fisher’s attorneys appealed the case and in June 2011, a federal appellate court sided with the university.

Compounding the university’s admissions decisions is the state’s “Top 10% Rule,” which grants admission to any state university to any student who has graduated in the top tenth of their high school class. The university issued a news release Feb. 21 standing behind its admissions policies, which it calls “holistic” and “narrowly tailored to achieve the educational benefits of a diverse student body.”

The Chronicle reported in October that experts found it unlikely the case would make it to the Supreme Court, as, experts said, it presented the court with no new issue to address. The Associated Press reports that this affirmative action decision will be heard by a much more conservative court than the ones in 2003. Justice Samuel Alito “appears more hostile” to affirmative action, the AP reports, and Justice Elena Kagan will not participate in the decision. When Kagan was solicitor general for the U.S. Department of Justice, the department was involved in the case in lower courts.

Fisher, the AP reports, is now a senior at Louisiana State University. Her legal bills are being paid by The Project on Fair Representation, which opposes race in public policy.