Scotus Decision on Affirmative Action

Today’s decision by the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) to decline to rule on the use of affirmative action in higher education (via Fisher v. University of Texas/UT) importantly allows UT and similar affirmative action programs to operate without abatement, pending further judicial review.

The decision was unexpected by those closely watching the case. SCOTUS sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit (lower court) on the basis that the Fifth Circuit (lower court) failed to verify that U/T applied appropriate standards of “strict scrutiny” in its use of race as a factor in admissions — (i.e., the Fifth Circuit Court did not verify that UT had exhausted all “race-neutral” alternatives to achieving constitutionally defined benefits of racial diversity).

Please see our work on this case and other efforts directed toward expanding educational opportunities via our April/October 2012 conferences: “Towards new Geographies of Educational Opportunity in Public Education” and “Public Education the Future of Affirmative Action,” featuring nationally recognized civil rights lawyers and scholars, including Gary Orfield, john powell, Godfrey Dillard, Howard Winant, Andrew Grant-Thomas, Erica Frankenberg and noted others.

We will be updating our analysis on this landmark case as it progresses.