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A white girl, Abigail Fisher (and, for the life of me, I can't find a picture of her), was denied admission to the University of Texas. She sued the school claiming UT's use of race in its admission policy violates the Equal Protection Clause. So far she has lost.
But today the Supreme Court announced it will hear the case, and many believe it will reconsider the legality of using race in college admissions altogether.
Here's a fact I didn't know about the Evil Empire. As of 2008, a staggering 80% of its students had been admitted under the Top Ten Percent rule. I think that rule requires a high school student who graduates in the top ten percent of his class to be guaranteed admission in publicly funded Texas colleges. In fact, the rule was supposed to help alleviate the whole Affirmative Action problem since that rule applies to all Texas high schools. So a black or Hispanic student in a predominately black or his Hispanic school would be guaranteed admission if he could finish in the top ten percent.
However, UT went one step further and favorably "considers" race of minorities in determining who will be admitted for those who don't qualify under the Top Ten Percent Rule. That's what Ms. Fisher claims caused her to be denied admission simply because she is white. Interesting stuff.
