U.S. Supreme Court allows high school admissions policy in race dispute
Reuters
Published Apr 25, 2022 05:10PM ET
Updated Apr 25, 2022 05:25PM ET
By Andrew Chung and Lawrence Hurley
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to block an elite Virginia public high school's admissions policy - designed to increase its racial and socioeconomic diversity - that was challenged by a group that said the rules discriminated against Asian Americans who make up the majority of its student body.
The justices denied a request by the group, Coalition for TJ, to reinstate a federal judge's February ruling that stopped Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria from using the recently devised admissions policy.
Three conservative justices on the nine-member court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, said in the brief court order that they would have granted the request.
The case is the latest front in a legal battle in the United States over school admissions policies involving or affecting the racial composition of campuses.
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had put Judge Claude Hilton's February ruling striking down the high school's admissions policy on hold while litigation over the admissions policy's legality moved forward.
The Supreme Court is due later this year to hear cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina that give its conservative majority a chance to end affirmative action policies used by universities to increase enrollment of Black and Hispanic students.
Thomas Jefferson is a magnet school with a selective admissions policy that has had chronic underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students.
The school board adopted a new admissions process that ended a standardized testing requirement and guaranteed seats for the top students from each public middle school in the surrounding area.
Coalition for TJ, represented by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, sued the school board last year, arguing that the new admissions policy discriminated against Asian American students.
Get The News You Want
Written By: Reuters
Trading in financial instruments and/or cryptocurrencies involves high risks including the risk of losing some, or all, of your investment amount, and may not be suitable for all investors. Prices of cryptocurrencies are extremely volatile and may be affected by external factors such as financial, regulatory or political events. Trading on margin increases the financial risks.
Before deciding to trade in financial instrument or cryptocurrencies you should be fully informed of the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, carefully consider your investment objectives, level of experience, and risk appetite, and seek professional advice where needed.
Fusion Media would like to remind you that the data contained in this website is not necessarily real-time nor accurate. The data and prices on the website are not necessarily provided by any market or exchange, but may be provided by market makers, and so prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual price at any given market, meaning prices are indicative and not appropriate for trading purposes. Fusion Media and any provider of the data contained in this website will not accept liability for any loss or damage as a result of your trading, or your reliance on the information contained within this website.
It is prohibited to use, store, reproduce, display, modify, transmit or distribute the data contained in this website without the explicit prior written permission of Fusion Media and/or the data provider. All intellectual property rights are reserved by the providers and/or the exchange providing the data contained in this website.
Fusion Media may be compensated by the advertisers that appear on the website, based on your interaction with the advertisements or advertisers.