In 1997, a legislation was passed in Texas, requiring all high school seniors who ranked in the top 10% of their classes to be admitted to the school. Fast forwarding to 2008, both Plaintiffs Abigail Noel Fisher and Rachel Multer Michalewicz applied to the University of Texas at Austin, but where denied. They believed that they were denied due to the fact that they were white.
In 2009, United States District Court judge Sam Sparks upheld the University's policy, finding that it meets the standards laid out in Grutter v. Bollinger.[8] That decision was affirmed by a Fifth Circuit panel composed of judges Patrick Higginbotham, Carolyn Dineen King and Emilio M. Garza. In his ruling, Higginbotham wrote that the "ever-increasing number of minorities gaining admission under this 'Top Ten
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She had a grade point average of 3.59 and was in the top 12% of her class. She scored a 1180 on her SAT, which was above the 25th percentile of the incoming applicants at University of Texas-Austin, which was 1120. Fisher participated in the math and orchestra competitions, as well as volunteering for Habitat for Humanity. In 2011, her partner, Michalewicz, stopped pursuing the case and left Fisher by herself. In the court case Grutter v. Bollinger, it was ruled that that race had an appropriate but limited role in the admissions policies of public universities. Both Fisher and Michalewicz believed that the school was selecting more people that where of color over equally as eligible whites due to this court case. Fisher decided to bring this