Supreme Court Is Flooded With Briefs Defending Race-Conscious Admissions

The Chronicle of Higher Education
August 14, 2012

By Peter Schmidt

Washington

The Obama administration on Monday joined a long list of higher-education associations, civil-rights groups, and other organizations in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold race-conscious admission policies in a case involving the University of Texas at Austin.
As of late Monday, the deadline for such filings, the Supreme Court had received more than 50 amicus curiae—or "friend of the court"—briefs backing the University of Texas' consideration of race in undergraduate admission decisions. Among those who urged the court to leave the Texas policy intact were 17 U.S. senators, 66 U.S. representatives, 15 state governments, about 100 colleges that fear their efforts to promote diversity may be at risk, and relatives of the late Heman Marion Sweatt, whose lawsuit challenging his race-based exclusion from Texas' law school led to a landmark 1950 Supreme Court ruling helping to usher in the desegregation of American higher education.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/article/Supreme-Court-Is-Flooded-With/133625/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en