Texas Republicans ask Supreme Court to end college affirmative action

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Texas looms massive within the background of two pivotal affirmative action instances earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court that would change how race is taken into account in American larger training admissions.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard back-to-back oral arguments in challenges to the race-conscious admission processes utilized by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The courtroom’s conservative majority appeared to lean towards ending affirmative action, whereas the three liberal justices defended the follow. A call isn’t anticipated till June.

Both instances are introduced by Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit led by Edward Blum, who performed a key function in a yearslong authorized problem to the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions coverage. Blum recruited Abigail Fisher to be the plaintiff in that 2008 problem after UT-Austin rejected the white undergraduate applicant. The nation’s highest courtroom in 2016 narrowly upheld UT-Austin’s proper to give a slight increase to Black and Hispanic candidates, however the courtroom has turn into much more conservative since that 4-3 ruling.

In the lead-up to Monday’s listening to, the Harvard and UNC instances acquired over 90 amicus briefs, in accordance to SCOTUSblog. Many of them cited the earlier UT-Austin case — and a few got here from Texas politicians, students and affirmative action advocates.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an amicus brief final yr arguing that Harvard’s admission course of is discriminating in opposition to Asian Americans and that the nation’s high courtroom ought to overturn Grutter v. Bollinger, a 2003 landmark ruling that upheld schools’ capacity to narrowly tailor race-conscious admission and diversify the coed inhabitants for academic advantages. He additionally joined a brief that claims UNC’s practices are unfeasible “without unlawful racial discrimination.”

“The University of Texas was wrong. And the University of North Carolina and Harvard, respondents here, wrong Asian Americans by denying them an equal admissions process,” Paxton wrote in a newer combined brief.

Students for Fair Admissions argues that Harvard’s admission course of artificially depresses the variety of Asian American college students who’re accepted. For UNC, the difficulty is extra broadly about whether or not its mannequin has violated the Fourteenth Amendment, which requires equal safety below the legal guidelines.

Notably, Paxton’s touch upon UT stands in distinction to Gov. Greg Abbott, who supported the establishment when he was the state’s legal professional normal. “Those who drafted and ratified the Fourteenth Amendment did not establish the principle of ‘colorblind’ government that opponents of race-conscious admissions too often invoke,” Abbott wrote in a brief to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in 2011.

Thirty-three of the amicus briefs assist Students for Fair Admissions, whereas 60 again Harvard and UNC.

Over 80 U.S. senators and representatives — together with 9 Texas Republicans, comparable to U.S. Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn — signed on to a brief filed in May 2022 that additionally challenged Grutter. It claims that the ruling stands in opposition to the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits race-based discrimination.

Jonathan Mitchell, a former solicitor normal of Texas who is healthier often known as the authorized architect of the state’s ban on abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant, made a similar argument on behalf of America First Legal, a right-wing group led by former President Donald Trump’s coverage adviser Stephen Miller.

“[Title VI] prohibits all forms of racial discrimination at universities that accept federal funds, with no exceptions for ‘compelling interests,’ ‘diversity,’ or ‘strict scrutiny,’” Mitchell wrote.

But many extra Texans have publicly defended affirmative action by way of amicus briefs.

Among politicians, three Texas Democrats — U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro, Sylvia Garcia and Marc Veasey — signed on to an August 2022 brief with over 60 different Congress members that requires the Supreme Court to reaffirm Grutter.

“Title VI, like [Brown v. Board of Education], has historically been used to dismantle segregation and enhance educational opportunities for all Americans. It remains a vital tool to promote desegregation and educational equity and is entirely consistent with Grutter,” learn the temporary.

An evaluation of years of Texas’ high 10% coverage — by which public universities routinely admit the highest 10% of scholars of their highschool’s class with out contemplating race — also shows that it did not preserve and foster illustration, the temporary notes.

In addition, comparable to briefs filed by Asian American teams, it careworn that Asians will not be a cultural monolith and that many Asian ethnic teams nonetheless profit from affirmative action. For occasion, whereas 75% of Indian Americans within the U.S. have a college diploma, the rate falls to 32% for Vietnamese Americans and 17% for Laotian Americans. Pew Research Center additionally found in 2018 that Asians are the “most economically divided group in the U.S.”

This criticism in opposition to the mannequin minority delusion — which perpetuates the concept of Asians being a profitable and deserving minority and is used usually as a “racial wedge” in opposition to Black Americans — can also be backed by over 1,200 social scientists, together with shut to 50 based mostly at Texas universities.

“The notion that race-conscious admissions policies discriminate against Asian Americans relies on and perpetuates harmful stereotypes against Asian Americans,” learn the brief from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which represents over 120 organizations and people together with OCA Greater Houston.

“Opponents of race-conscious policies have long relied on this racist stereotype of Asian Americans to argue that other communities of color ‘simply need to work harder to attain social and economic mobility.’”

Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a monetary supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news group that’s funded partially by donations from members, foundations and company sponsors. Financial supporters play no function within the Tribune’s journalism. Find an entire list of them here.