Times Higher Education by Chris Parr January 31, 2013
Affirmative action judgment could have repercussions across US. Chris Parr reports
The US Supreme Court will this year deliver its verdict on Fisher v The University of Texas at Austin - the first time in a decade that the court will rule on the issue of race in the university admissions process.
The plaintiff, 22-year-old Abigail Fisher, who is white, claims that she was denied admission to the university in 2008 because, in some cases, the institution's admissions assessment process takes into account - among a range of factors - ethnicity.
"Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual." Thomas Jefferson
However, it could rule that the use of race to assess incoming students is no longer necessary in Texas specifically, because the 10 per cent rule is already responsible for recruiting the vast majority of its minority students. Alternatively, the court could send out a statement that affirmative action is in itself outdated, which might prompt universities in other parts of the US to reconsider their own admissions policies.
I would be surprised if they had enough common to stop the pandering and declare Affirmative Action a thing of the past.
RIGHT'S RIGHT 
Print view
Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:00 pm
reply
