With oral arguments set for Wednesday in the U.S. Supreme Court case that could restrict or end the use of race in college admissions, supporters of race-conscious affirmative action have been ramping up their own oral arguments in the court of public opinion.
Their message—that race-conscious affirmative action is still necessary to achieve diversity on campus—is one they plan to amplify right up to the day of the hearing itself. Their efforts are expected to culminate with a rally Wednesday on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court at the same time attorneys in Fisher v. University of Texas are scheduled to make their oral arguments.
The plaintiff in the case is Abigail Fisher, a White student who claims she was unfairly denied entry to the University of Texas at Austin because of her race.
Fisher—who did not qualify for entry under a Texas college admissions policy that automatically admits students in the top 10 percent of their high school class into the state’s public universities—was rejected as part of a separate pool of applicants admitted through a system in which race can be considered along with a series of other factors.
Proponents of race-conscious affirmative action say that, if Fisher prevails, it could undermine diversity on campuses throughout the United States.
“The stakes are very high,” said Paul Wolfson, partner at WilmerHale, which has filed a brief in support of the University of Texas at Austin’s undergraduate admissions policy. “It’s very important to the universities and all the people that depend on them to maintain the ability to structure an incoming class and a student body that is as vibrant, as excellent and as diverse as possible.”
Wolfson made his remarks during a recent phone conference organized by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that also filed a brief in support of the University of Texas.
