Scalia questions place of some black students in elite colleges

During the 90-minute session of oral arguments, Antonin Scalia riled listeners by suggesting that black scholars perform better in “slower track” academic programs.

Justices heard extended arguments in Abigail Fisher’s case against the University of Texas’ race-conscious admissions plan Wednesday and it may not bode well for affirmative action. “I don’t think it stands to reason that it’s a good thing for the University of Texas to admit as many blacks as possible”, Scalia said. “Maybe it ought to have fewer”, Scalia continued, emphasis ours.

Affirmative action challenges tend to be among the most complex, messy, statistics-laden and emotionally charged cases that land before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Texas says the “top 10” program alone is not enough and that the school needs the freedom to fill out incoming classes as it sees fit.

The conservative justices such as Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. want affirmative action in admissions removed since it is unnecessary and unconstitutional. Fisher’s attorneys claim the program at the University of Texas violates the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees equal protection under the law. When Garre brought up the low numbers of minority students the university was admitting before race was considered as a factor, Roberts shifted the conversation and grilled Garre on the timeline the school had for achieving its goal of diversity. During some points, court observers believed Kennedy seemed to be considering remanding the case to a lower court, as it did in 2013 when the case was first argued in front of the Supreme Court. Affirmative action policies have been fought long and hard across the country has experts try to determine what importance diversity places in an educational setting.

The case was sent back to the appeals court.

One of the most commonly cited reasons given for practicing affirmative action in academia is that racial diversity provides additional perspectives that improve the academic experience. “And the record in this case overwhelmingly shows that without the addition of race, student body diversity suffered, particularly among African-Americans”.

“We’re just arguing the same case”, Kennedy said, referring to the last time the high court debated Fisher.

The university had set up admissions so that it automatically accepted Texas high schoolers in the top ten percent of their class. UT then evaluated the remainder of applicants based upon a number of factors and gave them two scores: one based on essays, leadership activities, and background, including race, and one based on grades and test scores.

The school said the majority of those admissions were white, non-Hispanic students, but adds the operation of the holistic review program did increase the percentage of African Americans by 1 percent and that of Hispanic students by 2.5 percent.

The Supreme Court’s decision to revisit the case this term struck many supporters of affirmative action as an ominous sign, one suggesting that a 12-year-old societal compromise was in peril.