Affirmative Action Case Study

In the case of Fisher v. The University of Texas, Affirmative Action has played a major role in the future of affirmative action cases. According to, the novel For Discrimination: Race, Affirmative Action, and the Law, affirmative action is defined as, to seek to remedy the significant underrepresentation of members of a certain, racial, ethnic, or other groups through measures that take group membership or identity into account (R. Kennedy 2013 and P. Brest and M. Oshige 1994). Affirmative Action follows back into America’s past from the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which stated all persons born in the United States were citizens but before this was passed there was the Dred Scott decision which had ruled blacks whether free or enslaved were

University of Texas two prospective freshmen Abigail Fisher and Rachel Michalewicz sued the University of Texas because they failed to gain admission into the university. They girls claimed they were discriminated because of being white. Prior to the Fisher case, the number of minorities enrolling at University of Texas increased drastically. The reason behind such numbers is for the school to become “race-neutral” meaning to make the presence of minorities at the university equal. Before the Fisher case, in 1996, in HOPWOOD, the Fifth Circuit of Appeals ruled that the University of Texas could not use race as a factor for attaining diversity. In addition to the ruling, this legislation had one exception, Texas high school seniors who were in the top ten percent of their class were would gain automatic admission to any Texas state university. The University of Texas research study called Proposal to Consider Race and Ethnicity in Admissions, the school believed they were failing to enroll underrepresented students needed to attain the full educational benefits of diversity (R. Kennedy 2013). The University of Texas began using race as factor when choosing new and incoming students for enrollment. This shows race in a positive manner in a prospective student’s application that the plaintiff’s in the case of the students Abigail Fisher and Rachel Michalewicz, challenged in Fisher v. University of Texas. Ultimately, the

The Court of Appeals had a three paneled judge in which one of the judge’s Patrick E. Higginbotham agreed with the University of Texas’ using race as a factor for enrollment of prospective students was constitutional. Judge Higginbotham stated, “The ever increasing number of minorities gaining admission under the Top Ten Percent Plan casts a shadow to the otherwise plain legality of the Grutter-like admissions program” (R. Kennedy, 2013). The judge’s believed the university’s admission selection was the same as the Grutter case. The second judge on the panel is Judge Emilio M. Garza. Judge Garza had issues on how the University of Texas choose prospective students.