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onehandle

(51,122 posts)
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 10:28 AM Jun 2013

Supreme Court punts on affirmative action case

Source: Yahoo News

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 or not.

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."

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.

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



Supreme Court sends affirmative action case back to lower court to be reheard, basically.
14 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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broadcaster75201

(387 posts)
1. I can live with this. With luck ...
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 10:37 AM
Jun 2013

... one of those Conservative idiots on SCOTUS will be replaced by the time it gets back.

elleng

(130,126 posts)
2. Good news, they recognize the difficulty of the issue and don't act like bull in china shop.
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 10:43 AM
Jun 2013

From SCOTUSblog:

Here’s the money quote: “The reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity.”

The opinion by Kennedy. The Fifth Circuit is vacated and remanded. The holding is because the Fifth Circuit did not hold the university to the demanding burden of strict scrutiny articulated in Grutter and Bakke, its decision affiming the district court’s grant of summary judgment was incorrect.

There is one dissent. It is 7-1. Ginsburg dissents alone. There are separate concurring opinions by Scalia and Thomas. Kagan was recused.

http://projects.nytimes.com/live-dashboard/2013-06-supreme-court-decisions

 

Bully Taw

(194 posts)
3. i have a really hard time with this...
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 11:34 AM
Jun 2013

as I feel that you cannot end discrimination by reversing it. Basing anything, be it a job, college admission on anything race related, even in part, is wrong. i understand why these policies exist, but moving a wrong from one person to another does not make the problem go away.

I am also tired of the race = diversity theory. Diversity should be an intellectual and cultural diversity. Diversity based on just someone's physical appearance is very misleading. Who is to say that one person checking "Caucasian" and one person checking "African American" don't come from very similar cultural backgrounds and have similar ways of thinking? When it comes to diversity, more investigating needs to be done than just an ethnic box check. A greater tool for creating diversity would be to find out if they grew up in a rural or urban environment, if they came from a two parent family, if they were active in school activities, if they played sports or took part in the Arts, etc. Diverse minds coming together is very important to our society, and basing diversity on the color of one's skin is selling our goal of diversity short.

chelsea0011

(10,115 posts)
4. I have never understood these lawsuits. How does the white person know a black person
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 11:35 AM
Jun 2013

took their seat? It makes no sense. What I am trying to say is that I am always surprised that these cases are allowed to proceed forward.

iandhr

(6,852 posts)
5. I think that is one of the reasons the SCOTUS here...
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 12:07 PM
Jun 2013

... decided to punt. She could not prove she was denied a place at UT because she is white.

former9thward

(31,802 posts)
6. That was not her case.
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 12:33 PM
Jun 2013

She didn't say a black person replaced her. Her suit says she was discriminated against because of race. She is saying a similar black person would have been admitted -- not that a black person specifically replaced the seat she would have had.

alp227

(31,960 posts)
7. Can anyone say ambulance chaser?
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 12:36 PM
Jun 2013

Maybe her daddy is one of those " anti racist is a code word for anti white" trolls. According to wikipedia "Applicants who, like Fisher, fail to graduate in the top 10% of their high schools, have a further opportunity to gain admission to the University by scoring highly in a process which evaluates their talents, leadership qualities, family circumstances and race. [5][6] Fisher had a grade point average of 3.59 (adjusted to 4.0 scale) [7] and was in the top 12% of her class at Stephen F. Austin High School. She scored 1180 on her SAT (measured on the old 1600 point scale, because UT Austin did not consider the writing section in its undergraduate admissions decision for the 2008 incoming freshman class). [7] The 25th and 75th percentiles of the incoming class at UT-Austin were 1120 and 1370. She was involved in the orchestra and math competitions and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity. [7]"

maybe her SAT score knocked her off? Music, math club, and Habitat for Humanity not special enough?

WovenGems

(776 posts)
9. Follow da money!
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 02:15 PM
Jun 2013

I doubt this is really her lawsuit. Who is paying for her lawyers? Are her parents connected to white separatists? There is a common link between raising tuitions to the sky and ending diversity. Know what that link would be?

She is a pawn being played by billionaires who don't really care about race but want to make education out of reach by most. They use race to motivate since getting middle America to side with them is hopeless.

freshwest

(53,661 posts)
10. Wonder what brainiac pushed this lawsuit, considering the facts of the case as stated in the OP:
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 02:38 PM
Jun 2013
...Fisher's grade point average and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race...

Thus the only thing Fisher had going for her is that being white is a qualification. A clear case of reverse discrimination, see the oppression.

Ah, ha, we are now in post-racial America. So this antebellum reasoning process can't be argued with. Full circle. Is she a Birther, by any chance?

I know some smart dogs who wouldn't meet admission qualifications. I'm hoping a court will find that I have grounds to sue.

Let's re-invent the wheel here.

Kolesar

(31,182 posts)
12. Black Americans were excluded from white developments well into the 1970s
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 09:37 PM
Jun 2013

State legislatures were slow to force fair lending practices on the banks and mortgage issues. The conservatives like to act like discrimination had ended long ago.

We need a long period to address those social injustices.

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