Fisher v. University Of Texas At Austin

136 S.Ct. 2198 (2016)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Texas enacted H. B. 588, commonly known as the Top Ten Percent Law. The Top Ten Percent Law guarantees college admission to students who graduate from a Texas, high school in the top 10 percent of their class. Those students may choose to attend any of the public universities in the State. In the wake of Grutter, D embarked upon a year-long study seeking to ascertain whether its admissions policy was allowing it to provide the educational benefits of a diverse student body. D concluded that its admissions policy was not providing these benefits. D requested permission to begin taking race into consideration. D continues to fill a significant majority of its class through the Top Ten Percent Plan. A 75 percent cap, which has now been fixed by statute, means that, while the Plan continues to be referenced as a “Top Ten Percent Plan,” a student actually needs to finish in the top seven or eight percent of his or her class in order to be admitted under this category. The remaining 25 percent continues to be admitted based on a combination of their AI and PAI scores. Race is given weight as a subfactor within the PAI. The admissions officers who make the final decision as to whether a particular applicant will be admitted make that decision without knowing the applicant’s race. Race enters the admissions process, then, at one stage and one stage only - the calculation of the PAS. There is no dispute that race is but a “factor of a factor of a factor.” P applied for admission, and she was not in the top 10 percent of her high school class, so she was evaluated for admission through holistic, full-file review. P’s application was rejected. P sued for violation of Equal Protection. The District Court entered summary judgment in the University’s favor, and the Court of Appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.