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Divided Supreme Court Allows Selective High School’s Diversity Policy

  • Challengers said school was engaging in ‘racial balancing’
  • Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch dissent from ‘shadow docket’ order
The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, D.C.

Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
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A divided U.S. Supreme Court let a selective Northern Virginia public school keep using an admissions policy adopted to add more racial and socioeconomic diversity to its student body.

The justices refused Monday to block Thomas Jefferson High School’s year-old policy, challenged by a community group as discriminating against Asian-American applicants. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch dissented. Neither they nor the court as a whole gave any explanation.