WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Monday threw its support behind the University of Texas' use of race as a standard in its admissions policies, asking the Supreme Court not to interfere with the consideration of racial preferences in college admissions.
The Justice Department, in a court brief co-signed by several other government agencies,
told the high court that a diverse college population was in the
university's — and the government's — best interests. "The armed
services and numerous federal agencies have concluded that
well-qualified and diverse graduates are crucial to the fulfillment of
their missions," Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli said.
The court brief was cosigned by lawyers from the departments of Defense, Education, Commerce, Labor and Health and Human Services.
The Supreme Court's
ruling on the University of Texas' admission program will be its first
ruling on affirmative action in higher education since 2003. Arguments
will be October 10.
Abigail Fisher,
a white student who was not admitted to the school in 2008, filed a
lawsuit challenged the policy as violation of her civil and
constitutional rights.
Texas
admits most of its students because they rank among the top 10 percent
in their high school classes. Fisher's grades did not put her in that
category. For other students, Texas officials say that race is
considered among many factors, including academic record, personal
essays, leadership potential, extracurricular activities, and honors and
awards. The school says race is not used to set quotas, which the high
court has previously rejected.
"Race
is not considered on its own, and it is never determinative of an
applicant's admission by itself," Verrilli said. "Rather, race is one of
a number of contextual factors that provide a more complete
understanding of the applicant's record and experiences. That is a far
cry from impermissible racial balancing."
The
Texas policy has been upheld by federal appeals courts, which said it
was allowed under the high court's decision in Grutter vs. Bollinger in
2003 that upheld racial considerations in university admissions at the
University of Michigan Law School. But Fisher appealed to the current
Supreme Court, which is considered to be more conservative than the one
that ruled in 2003 and more likely to jettison that decision or at least
limit when colleges may take account of race in admissions.
Before
adopting race as part of its admission policy, Texas' student body was
21 percent African-American and Hispanic. By 2007, the year before
Fisher filed her lawsuit, African-Americans and Hispanics accounted for
more than a quarter of the entering freshman class.
"Race is
considered not on its own, but as a piece of information that provides
valuable context in understanding an applicant's achievements and his
likely contributions to the university," Verrilli said. "That
individualized consideration is designed to work in conjunction with the
Top 10 plan to enable the university to construct a class that is
diverse in all ways valued by the institution."
The case is Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 11-345.