University Affirmative Action Questioned at Supreme Court
Attorney Bert Rein speaks to the media while standing with plaintiff Abigail Fisher after the Supreme Court heard arguments in her case on Oct. 10, 2012 in Washington.
Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesMembers of the U.S. Supreme Court clashed over the value of university affirmative action policies, and pivotal Justice Anthony Kennedy raised the prospect that the court might put off issuing a broad ruling.
In a sometimes-heated argument Wednesday that ran more than 30 minutes beyond its allotted hour, the court’s liberal wing defended the University of Texas program as a means of fostering diversity. Members of the court’s conservative majority questioned whether racial preferences were warranted. Justice Antonin Scalia said that perhaps the university “ought to have fewer” minority students.