Supreme Court agrees to reconsider use of race in college admission decisions

Robert Barnes
Washington Post
February 22, 2012

The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it will consider whether the time has come to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions, resurrecting in an election year questions about the role race should play in American life.

The court will hear a white student’s claims that the University of Texas’s race-conscious admissions policy cost her a spot in the freshman class. A divided court only nine years ago said that universities were allowed to take race into account as one of many factors in considering applicants, when attempting to assemble a diverse student body.

Opponents of affirmative action hope that the current court, more conservative than the one that made the 2003 decision, will further constrain the use of race or eliminate it completely.

The affirmative action case adds to a remarkable convergence of controversial social issues on the court’s docket, even as the justices themselves take on a higher, election-year profile.

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This article was posted: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 8:48 am

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