M******e
发帖数: 382 | 1 Fisher v. University of Texas今天刚被最高法院接受审理。明年的判决结果将可能
影响全国高校的Affirmative Action。这起案件的推动人，正是5月30日应SVCA
Foundation之邀来湾区讲座的Edward Blum先生。
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/the-supreme-court-may-be-the-verge-e
The Supreme Court may be on the verge of ending affirmative action
The U.S. Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would take on another
major hot-button issue in its next term: affirmative action.
Here’s what you need to know about the case that could mark the end of race
-based admissions in the United States.
The case: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
The issue: Can the University of Texas use race as one factor in its
admission decisions?
The backstory of the issue: In 1978, the Supreme Court ruled that schools
could consider race as one of several factors in admissions but could not
set aside a specific number of slots for applicants of a particular race.
The majority opinion in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke
held that affirmative action constituted discrimination against white
college applicants, but argued that this discrimination could be justified
if it were necessary to achieve a compelling government interest and that
promoting diversity in university classrooms constituted such an interest.
For the past three decades, the University of Texas has been a key front in
the war over the legitimacy of the Bakke ruling. In 1996, a federal appeals
court in Texas suspended the university’s affirmative action program,
ruling that “educational diversity is not recognized as a compelling state
interest.”
No longer able to consider race in admissions, the University of Texas
established a “race-neutral” means of promoting diversity: Beginning in
1997, all students who finished in the top 10% of their high-school’s
graduating class would receive automatic admission to any public university
in the state. Because many Texas high-schools have near 100% minority
enrollment, the top 10% rule guarantees that a significant portion of the
students entering the state’s public universities each year would be from
minority backgrounds.
In 2003, the Supreme Court upheld the logic of Bakke, and UT reinstated race
as an admissions criterion, while retaining the top 10% rule.
The backstory of the case: When white undergraduate Abigail Fisher was
rejected by UT in 2008, she brought a legal suit challenging the university
’s consideration of race in admissions, arguing that the top 10% rule had
proven that the state could fulfill its compelling interest of promoting
diversity without directly discriminating on the basis of race.
Fisher’s case first reached the Supreme Court in 2012. Back then, the Court
ruled that the use of affirmative action by public universities was only
constitutional if the school could show it had no other realistic
alternative for creating a diverse student body. Since the lower court never
asked the university to make such a showing, the case was returned to the
Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which found in favor of UT Austin.
Fisher immediately appealed the ruling to the Supreme Court, and, on Monday,
they agreed to hear her case.
The most likely outcome: The Supreme Court will very likely end affirmative
action at UT Austin, and may even end affirmative action at all public
universities.
The trouble for the policy’s supporters is twofold.
First, it took Sandra Day O’Connor joining the court’s four liberals to
uphold Bakke in 2003. Since then, O’Connor has been replaced by the far
more conservative Samuel Alito.
Second, the court’s liberal quartet will be shorthanded for Fisher; Elena
Kagan has been forced to recuse herself because of her involvement with the
Fisher case back when she was solicitor general.
When the court ruled on Fisher in 2013, Justice Antonin Scalia issued a one-
paragraph concurring opinion that reiterated his objection to affirmative
action in all circumstances, and implicitly suggested that next time she
came before the court, Fisher should ask the court to end it outright. | i*********e
发帖数: 1010 | | b********8
发帖数: 177 | 3 Ding
[在 ManYouKe (漫游客) 的大作中提到：]
：Fisher v. University of Texas今天刚被最高法院接受审理。明年的判决结果将可能
：影响全国高校的Affirmative Action。这起案件的推动人，正是5月30日应SVCA
：........... |
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