Joshua Civin, counsel to the director of litigation for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, argued in court that there are still barriers to education for racial minorities — and that those barriers constitute an inherent disadvantage.
Last November, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin after the case was remanded by the U.S. Supreme Court in June. In a 7-1 ruling, the nation’s highest court decided that the lower court failed to apply “strict scrutiny” to the university’s admissions process and that race should only be a factor in admissions to aid in diversity only if “available, workable, race-neutral alternatives do not suffice.” The justices sent the case back to the lower court to apply that standard.
It is unclear as to when a ruling is expected, but it could come as early as this month.
The outcome of the case could have far-reaching implications for colleges and universities throughout the country that use a race-conscious admissions process. While Fisher’s name is listed as the plaintiff, at its core, the case examines the inclusion of race in the process of holistic review, which selective colleges and universities use to assess applicants.
Man behind the case
Edward Blum had been searching for someone like Fisher. The founder and sole employee of the Project on Fair Representation, which he founded in 2005, Blum had put up a website looking for White students who thought they had been denied admission to UT because they were White. Fisher’s father, Richard, contacted Blum in 2008 and made his daughter’s case.
Though Fisher had a 3.59 GPA, it was not enough to put her in the top 10 percent at her suburban Houston high school, which, under state law, would have garnered her automatic admission to UT. According to court documents, Fisher’s SAT score of 1180 out of 1600 was above that year’s national average; she was an accomplished cellist, had participated in mathematics competitions and volunteered for Habitat for Humanity. But the spots for students like Fisher were limited — just 841 remained after the top 10 percent-ers claimed theirs.
