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Summary Of The Fisher V. University Of Texas Supreme Court Case

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The Fisher v. University of Texas Supreme Court Case (argued in 2015) involves how race affects college admissions and how a certain student reacted to it. The purpose of the article is to inform the audience about the use of race in college admissions without considering the effect on the students. The argument made in the article is that the documentation of race does not violate any laws declared in the United States Constitution (“Fisher v. University of Texas”). A white female student, Abigail Fisher, was denied admission to the University of Texas because she did not qualify for the Top Ten Percent Plan. The plan automatically admits a student if they graduated in the top ten percent of their high school class. When Fisher discovered that Texas University considers race as a factor while selecting the top ten percent, she sued the University because she believed it “violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” (“Fisher v. University of Texas”). When the district court held that the process was constitutional, Fisher took the case to the Supreme Court, where the verdict was that the University’s …show more content…

The article is accessible to anyone and is intended to inform the United States citizens who wish to learn more about court cases regarding education. There is no bias present in the article, but it creates a controversial argument to whether or not this is the correct way to determine a student’s college qualification. For example, Justice Alito argued that “the use of racial preferences is unnecessary to achieve the goal of diversity because the admissions process could use a race-neutral holistic review based on life experiences that would achieve the same effect” (“Fisher v. University of Texas”), meaning there are more ways to promote a diverse educational environment without including race as a deciding factor for each

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SUMMARY In this landmark case Allan Bakke, a white applicant to the University of California, Davis Medical School, sued claiming his denial of admission on racial grounds was a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. The standing rule at the time was that race may be a factor in determining admission to educational institutions; however it cannot be the sole determining factor. FACTS OF THE CASE The University of California, Davis Medical School had been reserving 16 spots in each class out of 100 for disadvantaged minorities.

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After carefully reviewing the oral argument and brief of case 14-191, Abigail Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, I was impressed how well the plaintiff attorney argued her defense during the trail. The litigations were as stated, in 2008, the UT Austin enrollment department wrongfully denied admission based upon the school considered race discrimination in its admission process because Fisher was a white female student, and because of her inadequate academic achievements. Fisher lawyer focus adequately on the highlight of the case by persuading the court that she would have gotten accepted into the university if she wasn’t stereotyped on such matters: race, top 10 percent student, grades, test scores which she refer to as personal achievement index. UT at Austin attorneys really didn’t have much leading factories to propose a concrete objective. In the argument Fisher attorney used the Justice Powell‘s example on Bakke system to support is statement.

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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]

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The case was Jennifer Gratz v Lee Bollinger. Jennifer Gratz, a caucasian women, applied to the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA) and got denied. The University of Michigan’s admission was based on a 100 point, point system. The University automatically awarded 20 points to students who were a member a minority

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The second case filed against the University of Michigan is Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). The suit was filed by non-minority applicants who alleged the university for using race as the prevailing factor in admitting students and therefore violated the Equal Protection Clause, Title VI and Section 1981 (Green, 2004, p. 144). In their defense, the University of Michigan argued that the university seeks to ensure their ability to make unique contributions to the character of the student body by enrolling a “meaningful number” of underrepresented minority students (Green, 2004, p. 147). In contrast to the Gratz case, the district court did not follow Justice Powell’s rationale in the Bakke case and the district court ruled in favor of the plaintiff.

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In 2008, Abigail Fisher, a white female, applied for admission at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1997, Texas passed legislation which guaranteed all students who graduate in the top 10% of Texas’ graduating class, admission to all Texas state-funded universities, regardless of other factors. Fisher did not qualify for Texas’ “Top 10%” with a GPA of 3.59 and an SAT score of 1180, but applied for general admission in the top 12% of her class. At the University of Texas, about 75% of admissions are comprised of students who qualified as Texas’ “Top 10%”, and 25% of admissions are based on several factors including, but are not limited to, grade-point average, extracurricular activities, and race. When Fisher was denied admission, she enrolled

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The Supreme Court made a mistake when they decided with the University of Texas; no college should take in race as a factor when selecting applications of students. In 2007, two female high school students applied to the University of Texas; one of the girls being Miss Abigail N. Fisher. Abigail was a caucasian, in the top 12% of her school at Stephen Austin High School, but she was denied by the University of Texas along with a friend of her’s. However,

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Fisher, but they held the the Court of Appeals did not hold the University’s admission policies to a standard of strict scrutiny so the judgement was incorrect. In previous judicial precedent in cases dealing with minority admissions, the Court has held that they are reviewable under the fourteenth amendment, these such cases must be held to a standard of strict scrutiny to determine whether the policies are precisely tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest. If the policy does not meet this standard, then race can not be considered in any admissions process. The Court stated the it was the job of the reviewing court to verify that the University policy in question was necessary to achieve a more diverse student body and the any race-neutral alternative would not achieve the same level of diversity. The Supreme Court said the lower courts did not conduct a sufficient strict scrutiny examination in this case.

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With the help of Edward Blum, her case was taken to the nation’s highest court in 2013. In 2003, The University of Texas Austin, said that race would become a factor in admission forms. That same year, The University of Texas had the highest race of diverse student, mostly Black and Hispanic. So the question started to rise, “Was Fisher really rejected because of being

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In “Net (Race) Neutral: An Essay on How GPA + (reweighted) SAT - Race = Diversity,” Christine Goodman illustrates the opposing viewpoints in regards to the racial discriminatory efforts by the college institutions to help diversify the incoming freshman class. With this, Goodman provides statistics and opinions of experts on the matter, which includes comparison of such discriminatory acts against other institutions. To begin, she brings up an enlightening, yet controversial court case decision: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (2013). This court case demonstrates significance to this topic because it counteracts a previous court case, Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which, “upheld diversity as a compelling interest that would justify narrowly

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In the case of Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, Allan Bakke a white male was rejected from regular admissions into California University. He was rejected twice; meanwhile, minority students with lower grade point averages were being admitted into the same school under a special admissions program. After his second rejection, Allan Bakke was very upset, so he filed a law suit to the Superior Court of Yolo County, California. He wanted the chance to be admitted into medical school through the special admissions program. The University said that their admissions program was important and it ought to be kept in the University.

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In 2008, Abigal N. Fisher, a caucasian female, applied as a undergrad student at University of Texas at Austin, but was denied admissions. UT admissions policy has a top 10% rule which means, the first top 10% of high school graduates are automatically admitted. Fisher was not in this 10% category and was not admitted based on this rule. UT bases its admission decision partially based on race of the applicant. Based on this consideration, Fisher believes she was denied because of her race.

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The Supreme Court case of The Regents of the University of California versus Bakke questioned the use of affirmative action in applications. The medical school of the University of California at Davis reserved sixteen out of one hundred seats of every entering class for minorities (Blacks, Chicanos, Asians, and American Indians) (Banfield pg.82). Allan Bakke a white male in his mid-thirties was twice denied access to the University strictly based on quotas, although Bakke had MCAT scores and GPA higher than other minority applicants admitted (McBride par.3). Bakke would later sue The University of California on the basis that the school had violated the civil rights act of 1964.

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In the article, “The Truth about ‘holistic College Admissions”, Sara Harberson expresses how universities that are not allowed to use racial preferences on college admissions, are still devising strategies to work around the laws to produce the same result. Harberson states how the institutions are using what is called “holistic admissions”, which allows a college to factor in a student's background, race and income. By filtering out the minority groups, they are creating a less-diverse community, preventing students of certain backgrounds from a proper education, and taking away opportunities from students based on their ethnicity. Colleges are using racial segregation in the admission process so that they can have a white-favoring campus

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