Paxton, Cornyn and Cruz prod U.S. Supreme Court to end affirmative action in college admissions

by Alex Nguyen, Texas Tribune


Texas looms large in the background of two pivotal affirmative action cases before the U.S. Supreme Court that could change how race is considered in American higher education admissions.

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard back-to-back oral arguments in challenges to the race-conscious admission processes used by Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. The court’s conservative majority appeared to lean toward ending affirmative action, while the three liberal justices defended the practice. A decision isn’t expected until June.

Both cases are brought by Students for Fair Admissions, a nonprofit led by Edward Blum, who played a key role in a years-long legal challenge to the University of Texas at Austin’s admissions policy. Blum recruited Abigail Fisher to be the plaintiff in that 2008 challenge after UT-Austin rejected the white undergraduate applicant. The country’s highest court in 2016 narrowly upheld UT-Austin’s right to give a slight boost to Black and Hispanic applicants, but the court has become far more conservative since that 4-3 ruling.

In the lead-up to Monday’s hearing, the Harvard and UNC cases received over 90 amicus briefs, according to SCOTUSblog. Many of them cited the previous UT-Austin case — and some came from Texas politicians, scholars and affirmative action advocates.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/31/supreme-court-affirmative-action-texas-briefs/