Staff Reports
The Supreme Court decided not to take a case that challenged a Virginia high school’s efforts to promote diversity in education, leaving a lower court’s ruling intact. The case was brought by a group of parents who claimed that the school’s admissions policies discriminated against Asian Americans. The school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, introduced a new admissions policy, which led to a drop in the number of Asian American students and an increase in other minority students.
Supreme Court rejects Virginia suit over race in high school admission policy https://t.co/AcO0Y9J6Fk https://t.co/AcO0Y9J6Fk
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) February 21, 2024
Republican-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito dissented from the majority’s decision, arguing that the lower court’s ruling effectively allows official actors to discriminate against any racial group with impunity. Alito criticized the school’s admissions policy, saying it was implemented with an intent to “racially balance the freshman class by excluding Asian-Americans.” The Pacific Legal Foundation, led by senior attorney Joshua Thompson, expressed disappointment in the Supreme Court’s decision, calling it a missed opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions.
It’s clear that the Supreme Court’s 6-3 Republican-appointed majority, which ruled against race-based policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, continues to stand up for equality and fairness in education. However, the Court’s rejection of a conservative student group’s efforts to address race-based admissions policies at the U.S Military Academy at West Point shows that there is still work to be done in addressing discrimination in education. It’s a shame that the Supreme Court missed an opportunity to uphold the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection and end racial discrimination in school admissions.
