The Supreme Court will hear University alumna Abigail Fisher’s lawsuit today against the University of Texas at Austin, which she filed after she said she was denied admission because of her skin color: white.
National media has swarmed the case in the last 24 hours — The New York Times, USA Today and local outlets printed the story on their front pages Tuesday — as the Supreme Court prepares for the hearing that could change the way public universities grant admission.
In 2008, Fisher claimed she was denied entrance to UT on grounds of affirmative action, the right of an institution to take race, sex and religion among other classifications into account, in an attempt to counter discrimination in education, business and other areas.
Texas high school students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their classes are guaranteed entrance into public Texas universities. Fisher, a Texas native, was not in the top 10 percent of her class and was evaluated on other factors for admission, including race.
Fisher enrolled at LSU after being rejected from UT and graduated in May. Admissions based on race at LSU are only a “minute” part of the admissions process, according to Associate Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management David Kurpius.
Fisher told The New York Times she hopes her lawsuit will take away the right of universities to use race in admissions and base admissions solely on merit.
UT said Fisher would not have been admitted to the university anyway and questioned whether she had sustained any injury from the rejection that would give her reason to sue, according to reports. The university also cited that it must be free to assemble a varied student body, a right the Supreme Court endorsed in 2003’s Grutter v. Bollinger.
In the case, the Supreme Court ruled the University of Michigan Law School had a compelling interest in diversity, allowing it to use race as a factor to discriminate in admissions.
Fisher’s case argues that the top-10-percent program is all UT needs to ensure diversity.
“The top-10-percent plan throughout Texas works extremely well in creating a racially and ethnically diverse student body,” Edward Blum told The Daily Reveille in March. Blum is the director of the Project on Fair Representation, an organization that provided counsel for Fisher.
But the ruling could be different this time around. The Supreme Court has become more conservative — five of the nine justices are on record opposing affirmative action.
It could mean defeat for UT and a possible ruling that any schools that receive public funding — including some Ivy League schools — cannot use race in admissions.
