On January 18, 2011, the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit unanimously upheld the University of Texas at Austin's affirmative action policy of giving weight to race in admissions decisions. The plaintiffs, two Caucasian students, were denied admission in 2008 and claimed violation of due process through the university's policy for contemplating race and ethnicity. The court affirmed a lower court ruling in finding the policy to be sound in accordance with the US Supreme Court's affirmative action ruling in Grutter v. Bollinger, which allowed for race to be considered holistically. The case has been appealed as Fisher v. University of Texas to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments in October 2012.

Learn more about affirmative action from the JURIST news archive, and read a discussion by JURIST Guest Columnist Ilya Shapiro on Fisher v. University of Texas in Hotline.

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