University of Texas’ Affirmative Action Safe After Fifth Circuit Affirms Poor Ruling

As of Tuesday, July 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the University of Texas at Austin could continue using affirmative action in its admission policies.

According to Politico.com, In the 2-1 ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the affirming judges wrote that they were “persuaded” that Texas necessarily used race in a “holistic” admissions process, noting that the courts have already settled that universities may use race to achieve diversity and promote equality of opportunity when alternatives would require an even greater use of race.

“Yet the backdrop of our efforts here includes the reality that accepting as permissible policies whose purpose is to achieve a desired racial effect taxes the line between quotas and holistic use of race toward a critical mass. We have hewed this line here,” Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote for the majority. “To reject the UT Austin plan is to confound developing principles of neutral affirmative action.”