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World News | Virginia high school admissions case could be legal follow-up to affirmative action ruling

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FALLS CHURCH, June 30 (AP) — A federal appeals court ruling last month on admissions policies at an elite Virginia public high school could give the U.S. Supreme Court a tool to flesh out its decision Thursday. The expected scope of the ban on affirmative action rulings is in college admissions.

Thomas Jefferson Technical High School, located just outside the nation’s capital, is often ranked as one of the best public schools in the country; admissions is highly competitive.

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A 2021 lawsuit challenging TJ’s admissions policies by a parent coalition backed by a conservative legal foundation is asking the Supreme Court to take up the case. The lawsuit raises issues similar to, but not identical to, those raised by the high court’s rulings dismissing the unconstitutionality of Harvard and UNC’s admissions policies.

College admissions rules include an applicant’s race as one of many factors to consider. In TJ’s case, though, all parties agreed that the admissions policy was ostensibly race-neutral.

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But the league that filed the lawsuit said the admissions criteria amounted to “race-based proxy” to achieve racial balance.

They say the policy discriminates against Asian Americans, who make up 70 percent of the student body.

The coalition also cites arguments among Fairfax County school board members as they implement the new policy in 2020.

Board members and administrators have expressed dismay at the decades-long underrepresentation of black and Hispanic students at TJ. The coalition argues that the new policy is aimed at increasing the representation of blacks and Hispanics at the expense of Asians.

The racial makeup of the first freshman class admitted under the new rules was markedly different. The proportion of black students increased from 1 percent to 7 percent; the proportion of Hispanic students increased from 3 percent to 11 percent. Asian-Americans fell from 73 percent to 54 percent.

The new policy replaces standardized testing with a process that allocates a percentage of seats based on geography and takes into account “experience factors” of students, such as whether they come from low-income families or speak English as a second language.

Last year, a federal judge found the admissions policy unconstitutional, saying “discussions of admissions reform have been shaped by racial balance from the outset.”

But in May, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling. In a 2-1 decision, the justices said the school board had a legitimate interest in increasing diversity and labeled the efforts as discriminatory against Asian-Americans “completely contrary to common sense.”

The Pacific Legal Foundation, which represents parents who claim anti-Asian discrimination, is petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.

“We think it’s a very powerful vehicle and the timing is right. We certainly hope that the courts will take this up,” said Joshua Thompson, a senior attorney for the foundation.

Eugene Kontorovich, a law professor at George Mason University, said Thursday’s ruling will have years of follow-up cases, as is typical for major Supreme Court cases, as universities drag their feet and find ways to salvage what they have lost. policy to follow. Ideological commitment.

Still, he’s less sure that TJ’s case will have a significant impact. He said the debate on the constitutionality of TJ’s policy would be factual and focused on what could prove the school board’s motives for enforcing the policy.

More likely, he said, is the debate over how colleges use essay questions on topics like diversity to achieve the same results as affirmative action programs that are now banned.

The majority opinion of Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts left a bit of leeway in this regard, writing that colleges could consider an individual’s application essay and “how race affected his or her life, whether through discrimination, inspiration or other methods.”

But Roberts also noted that universities “may not simply create a system that we consider illegal today through application essays or otherwise.”

Kantorovich said universities would ask essay questions on topics like diversity, “which would give them latitude to quietly consider race in a more subtle way.” But ultimately, he thinks the court, at least as it currently constitutes As stated, such termination attempts will be rejected.

Fairfax County Public Schools declined to comment on the Supreme Court’s ruling.

Pacific Legal expects to formally file the petition with the Supreme Court in August and may know by the end of the year whether the case will go to trial, Thompson said. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a syndicated news feed, the latest staff may not have revised or edited the body of content)


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