Supreme Court May Revisit Racial Preferences

Ashley Thorne

NAS is a "friend of the court" in what could be a landmark case on the diversity rationale for racial preferences in college admissions. Our press release outlines the argument in the amicus brief we joined, written by the Pacific Legal Foundation. An excerpt:

In January 2011, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld racial preferences, but one of the judges on the panel, Emilio M. Garza, wrote a 30-page “special concurrence” to accompany his decision. He wrote that although he felt that the 2003 decision in Grutter v. Bollinger bound him to decide as he did, he considered Grutter a “misstep” which only the Supreme Court could rectify. He wrote, “Yesterday’s racial discrimination was based on racial preference; today’s racial preference results in racial discrimination.” Garza’s opinion may have set up an opportunity for the Supreme Court to at least clarify, if not repeal race-based preferences.

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