While the opinion — written by Justice Anthony Kennedy — settles the case formally known as Fisher v. The University of Texas at Austin, no one harbors any illusions that the ruling puts the kibosh on future challenges to the limited use of race in deciding who gets into college.
Still, the case gives institutions of higher education a reprieve — or what one advocate of affirmative action described as “breathing room” — to use race as a small factor as they seek to form future incoming classes of freshmen that are diverse — something that supporters of race-conscious affirmative action say is essential to the nation’s body politic, its workforce and its future leaders.
“This decision finally gives universities a chance to move forward with a critically important effort that could not be more important than it is today,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
The case was brought by Abigail Fisher, a White woman denied admission to UT-Austin and who argued unsuccessfully — twice — that the university’s use of race in admissions was the reason why.
The opinion reiterated that a university cannot impose a fixed quota or define diversity as “some specified percentage of a particular group or merely because of its rate or origin,” and that it must have a “reasoned, principled explanation” for its decision.
Once that standard is achieved, it said, courts should defer to the university’s conclusion, based on its expertise, that “a diverse student body would serve its educational goals.”
