Supreme Court punts on affirmative action case

The Supreme Court has sent a case involving the University of Texas' use of race in undergraduate admissions back to a lower court for a re-hearing. The justices dodged issuing a broader ruling that would have decided whether affirmative action policies at public colleges around the country were unconstitutional.

Justice Anthony Kennedy, the court's conservative-leaning swing vote, wrote the opinion, which was decided 7-1. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the court's liberal leader, dissented. Kennedy said the federal Fifth Circuit must re-hear the case to decide whether UT "offered sufficient evidence to prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity." The court also requires the lower court to decide whether the college could use any "race neutral" means of creating a diverse campus.

"Strict scrutiny imposes on the university the ultimate burden of demonstrating, before turning to racial classifications, that available, workable race-neutral alternatives do not suffice," the justices wrote.

Abigail Noel Fisher brought suit against the University of Texas after she was denied admission in 2008. UT automatically admits Texans who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but fills its remaining seats by judging applicants on a combination of grade point average, test scores, race, and other factors. Fisher claimed she was discriminated against because she is white when she was denied admission. The college argued that Fisher's grade point average and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race, and that using race as one factor in admission helps them maintain a diverse student body.

The Supreme Court established in 2003 in Grutter v. Bollinger that universities could use race as a factor in admissions as long as they did not use quotas (for example, that 10 percent of the class must be black). The justices said affirmative action was still necessary to counteract the effects of institutionalized racism that had prevented minorities from attending college in the past. The majority wrote that they believed that in 25 years, affirmative action would no longer be necessary and should be stopped. This "sunset" provision was skewered by the four dissenting justices.

The Fisher v. University of Texas case was argued 10 months ago, and many legal experts were stumped as to why the justices were taking so long to release an opinion. The court has agreed to hear another case dealing with affirmative action next fall, and may issue a broader decision then.

Justice Elena Kagan, an Obama appointee, recused herself from the case due to her work on it as solicitor general. If the court had split 4-4 on the decision, the lower court's ruling allowing UT's admission system would have stood.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/supreme-court-punts-affirmative-action-case-141850745.html

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