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US court sends affirmative action case to lower court | US court sends affirmative action case to lower court |
(35 minutes later) | |
The US Supreme Court has sent a landmark case on using a student's race as a factor in pubic university admissions back to a lower court. | |
The affirmative action case was brought by a white student denied a place at the University of Texas in 2008. | |
Abigail Fisher said the college policy of considering her race violated her civil and constitutional rights. | Abigail Fisher said the college policy of considering her race violated her civil and constitutional rights. |
The decision appears to leave unresolved many arguments on the use of race as a factor in college admissions. | |
The justices voted 7-1 on the case, saying that an appeals court had failed to scrutinise the university's admissions policy thoroughly enough when considering whether it guaranteed equal protection to all applicants. | The justices voted 7-1 on the case, saying that an appeals court had failed to scrutinise the university's admissions policy thoroughly enough when considering whether it guaranteed equal protection to all applicants. |
Monday's ruling said: "The reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity." | |
Ms Fisher, who has since graduated from Louisiana State University, filed the lawsuit after she was rejected from the University of Texas in 2008. | |
Students in Texas high schools are automatically admitted to the University of Texas if they are in the top tier of their class in terms of academic achievement. | |
Ms Fisher's grades did not put her in that category. | |
Race and other factors can be considered when the university is deciding which applicants to accept for any remaining spots - approximately a quarter of the annual student intake. | |
When the Supreme Court heard arguments in Ms Fisher's case, elite private universities such as Harvard and Columbia filed briefings saying that without a legal basis to consider race it would be impossible for them to guarantee diversity on campus. | |
In a 2003 case involving the University of Michigan, the US Supreme Court upheld the use of race in admissions. | |
However, the court has become more conservative since then. |