Fisher v UT
Fisher v. UT is a court case involving the University of Texas at Austin and its race-conscious admissions policy. The case reached the Supreme Court in 2012, but was sent back to an appeals court. The case has the potential to stop the use of affirmative action policies in the U.S., but the lower courts have ruled in favor of the university.
In 1996, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals鈥� Hopwood v. Texas decision prevented universities in the state from considering race as a factor in admissions decisions. in 1997 to allow for diversity at state universities. The law guaranteed admission for all Texas high schoolers in the top 10 percent of their class to any state university.
The law remained in place even after the U.S. Supreme Court鈥檚 .
Abigail Fisher and Rachel Michalewicz applied to UT-Austin in 2008 and . Both students were not in the 10 percent of their classes and were rejected under the university鈥檚 race-conscious holistic review process. That year, .
Arguing the university鈥檚 race-conscious admissions policy of the Fourteenth Amendment, the two sued the university with the . After a federal district court judged ruled in favor of the university in 2009 and the Fifth Circuit Court followed suit in 2011, Michalewicz withdrew from the case.
By the time the case reached the Supreme Court in 2012, Fisher had . In an unexpected decision, the court , ruling that it did not apply 鈥渟trict scrutiny.鈥�
A year later, . Fisher鈥檚 request to have . Fisher is seeking to take the case back to the Supreme Court. If the court again takes up the case and rules in favor of Fisher, the decision would effectively reverse the Grutter decision.
Toward the end of the affirmative action arguments, Justice Antonin Scalia questioned whether the University of Texas' admission of minority students was really beneficial to those students.
From the Texas Tribune 鈥� The University of Texas at Austin needs to consider race in admissions if it wants a diverse, representative student body, the鈥�
