Bloomberg View: In Defense of Affirmative Action

The U.S. (i.e., the Obama Justice Department) has filed a brief in support of the University of Texas in Fisher v. Texas, which will probably be the Supreme Court’s most important case next year. Abigail Fisher, a white student, wanted to go to college at the University of Texas at Austin but didn’t get in. So she sued, charging the university with violating the various legislative and judicially imposed rules governing the use of race in college admissions.

It’s clear from the briefs in this case that the Supreme Court’s attempt nine years ago, in Grutter v. Bollinger, to clarify this muddy situation hasn’t worked. The Grutter case contrasted undergraduate and law school admissions at the University of Michigan. It held that a rigid mathematical formula (such as Michigan’s undergraduate policy), where extra points were given to minorities, was unconstitutional at a state institution, but a more flexible policy (such as one used at the law school) could use race as one of many factors without violating the Constitution. “Holistic” is the word that the court used, and it has become a standard one-word description of what the court wants.