|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|
|
Lambda Legal supports case on race-based admissions
From a news release
2012-08-15
|
|
This article shared 3401 times since Wed Aug 15, 2012
|
|
Lambda Legal on Aug. 13 joined the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and other allied organizations to file a friend-of-the-court brief in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a case challenging the use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions. The brief argues that the University of Texas at Austin's use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions is lawful under the Equal Protection Clause. Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP is lead counsel on the brief.
"In the years since the Supreme Court's 2003 Grutter decision, racial and ethnic disparities have persisted in our nation, in such areas as education, employment, criminal justice and healthcare. Our nation's public universities continue to have a compelling interest in ensuring the diversity of their student bodies," said Susan Sommer, Lambda Legal Director of Constitutional Litigation. "The University of Texas at Austin's use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions is lawful under the Supreme Court's equal protection precedents. Public universities should be able to consider race and ethnicity as one factor in an individualized assessment of the contributions applicants can bring to student life and educational experience."
Under the University of Texas at Austin's (UT) admissions policy, Texas students in the top 10% of their high school class are guaranteed admission to the university. This cohort of admitted students accounts for approximately 80-90% of admitted students. To fill remaining seats, UT uses a relatively complex set of indices in which race may be considered as one of a number of factors in an individualized, holistic assessment of a student's application. Abigail Fisher, a white Texas student denied admission to UT in 2008, brought this challenge to UT's use of race in its admissions decisions. Both the U.S. District Court in Texas and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld the university's policy as constitutional. The U.S. Supreme Court accepted review of the case and will consider whether its precedents interpreting the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment permit UT's use of race as a factor in undergraduate admissions decisions.
The brief argues that racial and ethnic disparities persist in our nation, in such areas as education, employment, criminal justice and healthcare. Especially given these disparities, students from varying backgrounds bring differing life experiences and perspectives to educational settings. Meaningful interactions among students of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds — not just the presence of some arbitrary number of minority students on a campus — yield important educational benefits for everyone. These benefits include improved classroom experiences and learning outcomes, and better preparation for work and civic engagement later on. Universities should be accorded a degree of latitude to make fine-grained, nuanced admissions evaluations that further educational judgments about the importance of promoting cross-racial interactions on campus.
Counsel of record for amici curiae is Bradley S. Phillips of Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP. Susan Sommer, Director of Constitutional Litigation, is handling this matter for Lambda Legal.
Read the brief here: www.lambdalegal.org/in-court/legal-docs/fisher_tx_20120813_amicus-lambda-legal-et-al |
|
|
|
This article shared 3401 times since Wed Aug 15, 2012
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | WORLD Nigeria arrest, Chilean murderer, trans ban, Olivier Awards, marriage items 2024-04-19 Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission's (EFCC's) decision to arrest well-known transgender woman Idris Okuneye (also known as Bobrisky) over the practice of flaunting money has sparked questions among several ...
|
| | NATIONAL Ohio law blocked, Trevor Project, Rev. Troy Perry, ICE suit, Elon Musk 2024-04-19 In Ohio, Franklin County Court of Common Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook temporarily blocked a Republican-backed state law banning gender-affirming care (such as puberty blockers and hormones) for transgender minors from ...
|
| | Schools are back in downsized Chicago Pride Parade after merging under 'welcoming schools' umbrella 2024-04-18 At least four schools are back in the Chicago Pride Parade lineup after they were previously told they wouldn't be able to march in this year's celebration due to new limitations enforced by the city. They ...
|
| | Supreme Court allows Idaho ban on gender-affirming care for minors 2024-04-18 The U.S. Supreme Court has granted a request by Republican Idaho Attorney General Raul Labrador to lift a lower court's temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing its felony ban on gender-affirming care for minors, The ...
|
| | Appeals court overturns W. Va. trans sports ban 2024-04-17 On April 16, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with teen trans runner Becky Pepper-Jackson and overturned a West Virginia law that banned transgender athletes from competing on girls' and women's sports teams in ...
|
| | Fed appeals panel ruling helps trans athlete 2024-04-17 A three-judge federal appeals court panel ruled Tuesday (April 16) that West Virginia's law barring transgender female students from participating on female student sports teams violates federal law. In a 2 to 1 decision, the panel ...
|
| | Chicago Pride Parade downsizing: Politicians, corporations most affected, but private schools could still be in 2024-04-16 Nearly 100 groups are on the waitlist to be in this year's Chicago Pride Parade after city officials mandated the annual event be cut by almost 40 percent. The waitlist for the June 30 parade includes ...
|
| | WORLD Ugandan law, Japan, Cass report, Tegan and Sara, Varadkar done 2024-04-12 Ugandan LGBTQ+-rights activists asked the international community to mount more pressure on Uganda's government to repeal an anti-gay law that the country's Constitutional Court refused to nullify, PBS reported. Activist ...
|
| | NATIONAL Trans woman killed, Tenn. law, S. Carolina coach, Evan Low, Idaho schools 2024-04-12 Twenty-four-year-old Latina trans woman and makeup artist Meraxes Medina was fatally shot in Los Angeles, according to the website them, citing The Los Angeles Times. Authorities told the Times they found Medina's broken fingernail and a ...
|
| | LPAC, Arizona LGBTQ officials denounce Arizona Supreme Court ruling on abortion 2024-04-10 --From a press release - Washington, DC — Yesterday, in a decision that starkly undermines reproductive freedoms, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled to enforce a 160-year-old law that criminalizes abortion and penalizes healthcare providers who ...
|
| | Black LGBTQIA leaders applaud U of South Carolina head coach Staley for standing up for trans athlete inclusion 2024-04-08 --From a press release - WASHINGTON — On Sunday, April 7, the University of South Carolina's women's basketball team won the NCAA National Championship. Ahead of the championship game, South Carolina's head coach Dawn Staley made comments in support of transgend ...
|
| | NAIA bans trans athletes from women's sports 2024-04-08 The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced on April 8 that athletes will only be allowed to compete in women's sports if they were assigned female at birth, CBS Sports reported. The NAIA's Council of ...
|
| | Lambda Legal: NAIA proposed transgender sports ban disappointing, harmful reversal 2024-04-08 Lambda Legal: NAIA Proposed Transgender Sports Ban a Disappointing and Harmful Reversal "The NAIA announcement sends a dangerous message, is inconsistent with the law and science, and undercuts the organization's ...
|
| | For Deb Robertson, the end-of-life issue is very real 2024-04-07 For just about everyone, life is hard enough. However, talking about ending that life—especially when one is terminally ill—is just as difficult. Ten states have authorized medical aid in dying, although Illinois is not one of ...
|
| | KFF survey shows extent of LGBT-related discrimination 2024-04-07 KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling and journalism—released "LGBT Adults' Experiences with Discrimination and Health Care Disparities: Findings from the KFF Survey of Racism, Discrimination, and Health." This ...
| |
|
|
|
|