Judge Tosses UT Preferences Lawsuit
Last year, two people filed suit challenging the University of Texas (UT) at Austin’s racial preferences admissions policy. This week, a federal judge granted summary judgment in favor of the school.
The plaintiffs claimed that UT failed to meet the standard laid out by the Supreme Court in Grutter v. Bollinger, where the court barred racial quotas but allowed some racial considerations in admissions. (Source)
Judge Sam Sparks found “plaintiffs’ arguments unpersuasive and finds UT has a compelling interest in student body diversity as articulated in Grutter. First and foremost, nothing in Grutter suggests a university must establish a specific percentage, or range of percentages, the achievement of which would satisfy critical mass.”
As you may recall, Texas guarantees admission to tax-supported schools to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their Texas high school class. The intent is to increase racial diversity. The plaintiffs in the UT case argued that since Texas uses the 10 percent plan with the goal of increasing diversity, UT shouldn’t be allowed to explicitly consider race. The court rejected this argument as well.
“Despite these race-neutral efforts to expand diversity at UT, in 2004 the university determined it still lacked a diverse student body, as evidenced by the absence of African-American and Hispanic students in thousands of its classes. To argue UT has failed to give serious, good faith consideration to race-neutral alternatives is to ignore the facts of this case — namely, that UT has used and continues to use race-neutral alternatives in addition to its limited consideration of race as part of its admissions process.”
In other words, because the race-neutral 10 percent plan didn’t achieve the results UT wanted, UT may revert to admitting students based on race.
