ACLU pleased with race-based admissions court ruling

The ACLU of Virginia’s Executive Director Claire G. Gastañaga released a statement regarding the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin regarding race-based admissions decisions.

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court did not side with Justice Thomas and overrule the previous decisions of the Court in Grutter v. Bollinger, the University of Michigan affirmative action case in which it upheld use of race as one “plus factor” in making individual admissions decisions, and the landmark Bakke decision involving the University of California. We are also encouraged that the Court did not question the fundamental finding in both the Grutter decision and Justice Lewis Powell’s earlier opinion in the Bakke case – that public universities have a compelling interest in building diverse and inclusive student bodies to enhance the educational outcomes of all students.   The Court has sent the case back to the lower courts where it is now up to the University of Texas to show that that it has “sufficient evidence to prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity.”