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== External links ==
== External links ==
*[http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-345_l5gm.pdf Slip opinion from the U.S. Supreme Court]
*{{caselaw source
||case=''Fisher v. University of Texas'', 570 U.S. ___ (2013)
|findlaw=http://laws.findlaw.com/us/000/11-345.html
|justia=http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/570/11-345/case.pdf
|cornell=http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/11-345
}}
* [http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/09-50822/09-50822-cv0.wpd-2011-02-02.html Text of ''Fisher v. University of Texas'' from the Fifth Circuit]
* [http://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca5/09-50822/09-50822-cv0.wpd-2011-02-02.html Text of ''Fisher v. University of Texas'' from the Fifth Circuit]


Revision as of 17:27, 25 June 2013

Fisher v. University of Texas
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 10, 2012
Decided June 24, 2013
Full case nameAbigail Noel Fisher, Petitioner v. University of Texas at Austin, et al.
Docket no.11-345
Citations570 U.S. ___ (more)
ArgumentOral argument
Holding
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals failed to apply strict scrutiny in its decision affirming the admissions policy. The decision is vacated, and the case remanded for further consideration.
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Roberts
Associate Justices
Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy
Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinions
MajorityKennedy, joined by Roberts, Scalia, Thomas, Breyer, Alito, Sotomayor
ConcurrenceScalia
ConcurrenceThomas
DissentGinsburg
Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. XIV, Grutter v. Bollinger

Fisher v. University of Texas is a United States Supreme Court case concerning the affirmative action admissions policy of the University of Texas at Austin. The Supreme Court voided the lower appellate court's ruling and remanded the case, holding that the lower court had not applied the standard of strict scrutiny, articulated in Grutter v. Bollinger and California v. Bakke, to the University's admissions program. The Supreme Court's ruling in Fisher took Grutter and Bakke as given and did not directly revisit the constitutionality of using race as a factor in college admissions.[1]

The suit, brought by undergraduate Abigail Fisher in 2008, asked that the Court declare the University's race-conscious admissions inconsistent with Grutter, which had in 2003 established that race had an appropriate but limited role in the admissions policies of public universities. While reasserting that any consideration of race must be "narrowly tailored," with Fisher the Court did not go on to not overrule Grutter, a relief for those who feared that the Court would end affirmative action. [2]

The United States District Court heard Fisher v. University of Texas in 2009 and upheld the legality of the University's admission policy in a summary judgment. The case was appealed to the Fifth Circuit which also ruled in the University's favor. The Supreme Court agreed on February 21, 2012, to hear the case. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case. On June 24, 2013, the Fifth Circuit was vacated and remanded in a 7-1 decision, with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissenting. Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas filed concurring opinions.

Background

Plaintiffs Abigail Noel Fisher and Rachel Multer Michalewicz applied to the University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and were denied admission. The two women, both white, filed suit, alleging that the University had discriminated against them on the basis of their race in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.[3] The University of Texas at Austin accepts students in the top 10% of each Texas high school's graduating class, regardless of their race; under Texas House Bill 588, 81% of 2008's freshman class were admitted under the plan.[4]

Applicants who, like Fisher, fail to graduate in the top 10% of their high schools, have a further opportunity to gain admission to the University by scoring highly in a process which evaluates their talents, leadership qualities, family circumstances and race.[5][6] Fisher had a grade point average of 3.59 (adjusted to 4.0 scale)[7] and was in the top 12% of her class at Stephen F. Austin High School.[7] She scored 1180 on her SAT (measured on the old 1600 point scale, because UT Austin did not consider the writing section in its undergraduate admissions decision for the 2008 incoming freshman class).[7] The 25th and 75th percentiles of the incoming class at UT-Austin were 1120 and 1370.[7] She was involved in the orchestra and math competitions and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity.[7]

During the case proceedings, Fisher enrolled at Louisiana State University, where she was in her final year as an undergraduate in 2012.[8][9] In 2011, Michalewicz withdrew from the case, leaving Fisher as the sole plaintiff.[5][9]

Lower courts

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] That decision was affirmed by a Fifth Circuit panel composed of judges Patrick Higginbotham, Carolyn Dineen King and Emilio M. Garza. Higginbotham, in his ruling, wrote that the "ever-increasing number of minorities gaining admission under this "Top Ten Percent Law" casts a shadow on the horizon to the otherwise-plain legality of the Grutter-like admissions program, the Law's own legal footing aside."[10]

A request for a full-court en banc hearing was denied by a 9-7 vote by circuit judges.[11][12]

Supreme Court

In September 2011, lawyers representing Fisher filed petition seeking review from the Supreme Court.[8] On February 21, 2012, the court granted certiorari in Fisher v. University of Texas. Justice Elena Kagan recused herself from the case and did not participate in the court's discussions.[13] Kagan's recusal is probably due to her involvement with the case while she was Solicitor General.[5]

Amicus briefs have been filed by Teach for America, the Asian American Legal Foundation, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the California Association of Scholars and Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence, the Black Student Alliance at The University of Texas, the Mountain States Legal Foundation, the Pacific Legal Foundation, Peter Kirsanow, Stuart Taylor, Jr. and others.[14]

The case was on the Supreme Court calendar for the term beginning in October 2012.[15][16] Some concerns were expressed that if the Court overruled Grutter, it would likely end affirmative action at public universities in the United States.[8] Some argued that the result of such a ruling would decrease the number of black and Hispanic students admitted to American universities while increasing the proportion of white and Asian students.[8]

Oral arguments

On October 10, 2012, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case. Bert Rein represented the petitioner, Gregory Garre represented the respondent university, and Solicitor General Donald Verrilli argued in support of the respondent.

During the beginning of the petitioner’s argument, Justices Sotomayor and Ginsburg asked questions about whether the case was moot. Specifically, they were concerned with the university's arguments that Fisher would not have earned admission regardless of her race, that she had already graduated from college, and that she only named the $100 application fee as real damages. Scalia commented that the harm of racial discrimination alone created an active controversy under the Court’s previous Equal Protection jurisprudence.[17]

Justices Scalia, Alito, and Roberts asked many questions about the definition of a “critical mass,” which Grutter named as the central measure of diversity. Scalia started calling it a “critical cloud” after the university’s lawyer failed, upon multiple requests, to define the central measure of diversity.[17] Chief Justice Roberts asked whether an applicant who was one quarter or one eighth Latino would be permitted by the University to check the “Latino” box.[17] Mr Garre responded that the applicant is entitled to self-identify any race, subject to discipline under the university's honor code, and the University did not ever question that determination.[17]

Legal analysts concurred that the process of oral argument indicated that a majority of the justices disliked the university's position.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-345_l5gm.pdf
  2. ^ Liptak, Adam (24 June 2013). "Justices Step Up Scrutiny of Race in College Entry". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2013.
  3. ^ Richey, Warren (February 21, 2012). "Affirmative action in college admissions goes back before Supreme Court". The Christian Science Monitor.
  4. ^ Wermiel, Stephen (October 11, 2011). "SCOTUS for law students: Barbara Grutter, meet Abigail Fisher". SCOTUSblog.
  5. ^ a b c Haurwitz, Ralph K.M. (February 21, 2012). "UT's race-conscious admission policy facing Supreme Court test". Austin American-Statesman.
  6. ^ Toobin, Jeffrey. "The Other Big Supreme Court Case". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ a b c d e "Joint Appendix, Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (Case 11-345)" (PDF). The Supreme Court of the United States. p. 65a–66a. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
  8. ^ a b c d e Liptak, Adam (October 15, 2011). "College Diversity Nears Its Last Stand". The New York Times. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Should the Supreme Court disavow it, the student body at the University of Texas and many other public colleges and universities would almost instantly become whiter and more Asian, and less black and Hispanic.
  9. ^ a b "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin challenges affirmative action in higher education". The Daily Texan. February 21, 2012.
  10. ^ Abigail Fisher, et al. v. State of Texas, et al. (PDF), United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, January 18, 2011
  11. ^ Farmer, Liz (February 22, 2012). "U.S. Supreme Court to hear case on UT admission policies". The Daily Texan.
  12. ^ Order on the petition for rehearing en banc
  13. ^ Barnes, Robert (February 21, 2012). "Supreme Court agrees to reconsider use of race in college admission decisions". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012.
  14. ^ "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin". SCOTUSblog. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012. Retrieved March 28, 2012. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ Denniston, Lyle (February 21, 2012), Affirmative action review due next Term, SCOTUSblog, retrieved April 6, 2012
  16. ^ Harrop, Froma (February 28, 2012). "Racial Preferences in College Admissions: Time to Go". Real Clear Politics. Archived from the original on October 9, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c d Oral Argument Transcript
  18. ^ Early Reactions to Fisher v Texas Arguments, Chronicle of Higher Education

Further reading

  • Pacelli, Kimberly A. (2011). "Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin: Navigating the Narrows between Grutter and Parents Involved" (PDF). Maine Law Review. 63 (2): 569–592.
  • Robinson, Reginald Leamon (2012). "Primal Fear: A Critical Re-Analysis of Why Racial Minorities Really Feared Grutter, Gratz, and Fisher". Working Paper. SSRN 2011254.
  • Thompson, Joshua Paul; Schiff, Damien M. (2011). "Divisive Diversity at the University of Texas: An Opportunity for the Supreme Court to Overturn its Flawed Decision in Grutter". Texas Review of Law & Politics. Forthcoming. SSRN 1803475.
  • Vinay Harpalani, Diversity Within Racial Groups and the Constitutionality of Race-Conscious Admissions, 15 U. PA. J. CONST. L. 163 (2012). Cited in Society of American Law Teachers (S.A.L.T.) amicus brief to U.S. Supreme Court in Fisher v. University of Texas, No. 11-345 (argued October 10, 2012). Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2087731
  • Vinay Harpalani, Fisher’s Fishing Expedition, 15 U. PA. J. CONST. L. HEIGHT. SCRUTINY (forthcoming 2013). Invited commentary on oral arguments in Fisher v. University of Texas, No. 11-345 (argued October 10, 2012). Available at http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2185453
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