Op-Ed: The Supreme Court will end affirmative action. What happens next?
Today, the Supreme Court will announce its decisions on the University of Texas at Austin’s affirmative action admissions policy and the high school admission policy of South Side Chicago’s School District. What happens next?
What was the Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and do the results justify the policy?
What was the Supreme Court decision on the school admissions policy in South Side Chicago, and do the results justify the policy?
Affirmative Action
The Supreme Court on March 8 gave no immediate direction to the lower courts, but it did say in one of the decisions that “we think the University of Texas has established that its policies are narrowly tailored to accomplish more than ‘the bare creation of a separate classification’ for black students.”
The University of Texas had adopted a policy giving preference and priority for certain minority students, and then provided a procedure for the admission of students who failed that preference.
The Supreme Court said in the University of Texas decision, which upheld the policy, that this preference was “narrowly tailored” to accomplish more “than the bare creation of a separate classification for black students.”
The Supreme Court in the University of Texas case said the state university also had to show “a clear relationship to the State’s interest” when it said this preference was narrowly tailored.
There are many ways to assess this policy, and there are strong arguments for and against it. Some say that this policy was a clear violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Another group says that this policy is the right policy.
Schools with High School Admissions Admissions Policies
In 2007, the Chicago Public School District in one of the poorest school districts in the country was faced with an enormous increase in the number of black students trying to attend its schools. They did not have a program that would allow their students to take their tests while on a bus.
Students who were eligible to take their standardized tests while on a school bus were often unable to do so because they did not have enough