Judge strikes down legal challenge alleging that UT Austin is defying SCOTUS affirmative action ban
‘It would be nonsensical for the Court to issue an injunction in light of the fact that UT Austin does not currently consider race or ethnicity in the admissions process,’ the judge alleged.
Students for Fair Admissions told Campus Reform it is ‘exploring all legal options including appealing this decision.’
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit that accused the University of Texas at Austin of racial discrimination.
The lawsuit was launched in 2019 by Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA), the group whose lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina led to the Supreme Court’s decision that race-based affirmative action programs for admissions in higher education are unconstitutional.
Though the lawsuit was dismissed in 2021, SFFA decided to appeal, claiming that UT Austin continued to consider race as a factor in student admissions despite the Supreme Court declaring such a practice unconstitutional.
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District Judge Robert Pitman, the judge who dismissed SFFA’s case and an appointee of former President Barack Obama, insisted that SFFA’s charges against UT Austin were based upon “mere conjecture.”
He also alleged that UT Austin’s admissions policy does not violate the Supreme Court’s decision, stating: “It would be nonsensical for the Court to issue an injunction in light of the fact that UT Austin does not currently consider race or ethnicity in the admissions process.”
SFFA told Campus Reform that it is “exploring all legal options including appealing this decision.”
SFFA states that it is constituted of “more than 20,000 students, parents, and others who believe that racial classifications and preferences in college admissions are unfair, unnecessary, and unconstitutional.”
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Its mission is to “support and participate in litigation that will restore the original principles of our nation’s civil rights movement: A student’s race and ethnicity should not be factors that either harm or help that student to gain admission to a competitive university.”
Several universities have attempted to find ways around the Supreme Court’s striking down of affirmative action, including the University of Virginia and Cornell University.
Campus Reform has contacted the University of Texas at Austin for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
