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Supreme Court punts on affirmative action case
Fisher v. University of Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kid graduates with crappy SAT score, average GPA,fails to get into a program which favors Texans, and then complains about being discriminated against.
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Abigail Noel Fisher brought suit against the University of Texas after she was denied admission in 2008. UT automatically admits Texans who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school classes, but fills its remaining seats by judging applicants on a combination of grade point average, test scores, race, and other factors. Fisher claimed she was discriminated against because she is white when she was denied admission. The college argued that Fisher's grade point average and standardized test scores made her inadmissible regardless of her race, and that using race as one factor in admission helps them maintain a diverse student body.
Fisher v. University of Texas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.[SUP][17][/SUP]
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.[SUP][17][/SUP] 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.[SUP][17][/SUP] Mr Garre responded that the applicant is entitled to self-identify any race and the University did not ever question that determination.[SUP][17][/SUP]
Legal analysts concurred that the process of oral argument indicated that a majority of the justices disliked the university's position.[SUP][18][/SUP]
Fisher had a grade point average of 3.59 (adjusted to 4.0 scale)[SUP][8][/SUP] and was in the top 12% of her class at Stephen F. Austin High School.[SUP][8][/SUP] 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).[SUP][8][/SUP] The 25th and 75th percentiles of the incoming class at UT-Austin were 1120 and 1370.[SUP][8][/SUP] She was involved in the orchestra and math competitions and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity.[SUP][8][/SUP]
Kid graduates with crappy SAT score, average GPA,fails to get into a program which favors Texans, and then complains about being discriminated against.
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