A federal appeals court has ruled that the University of Texas can continue to use race as a factor in admissions. From the New York Times:
“We are persuaded that to deny U.T. Austin its limited use of race in its search for holistic diversity would hobble the richness of the educational experience in contradiction of the plain teachings of Bakke and Grutter,” Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham wrote, referring to two previous affirmative-action rulings by the Supreme Court…
Last year, after hearing the initial appeal of the Texas case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the Supreme Court ruled that public colleges could consider race in admissions under certain conditions, but sent the case back to the appeals court to determine whether the University of Texas’ admissions policies used race narrowly enough to meet the standard laid out by the justices.
The Supreme Court has generally upheld admissions offices’ right to consider race on a “holistic” and invididual basis—rather than via quotas or bonuses in a point-based system. The Court also, however, recently upheld a state constitutional amendment passed by Michigan voters that banned the use of race as a factor in public education admissions.
