The Supreme Court declined to block a Virginia public high school’s admissions policy imposed to increase its racial and socioeconomic diversity following a challenge by a legal group that said the rules discriminated against Asian Americans.
Justices denied the request by Coalition for TJ to block Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Alexandria from using its newly created admissions policy.
The emergency request was initially sent to Chief Justice John Roberts earlier this month. Only three justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch, said they would have granted the application.
SUPREME COURT COULD TAKE UP ADMISSIONS CASE AT SELECTIVE VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL
The Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 order on March 31 that the policy at TJ could remain in place, following a lower court judge’s February ruling that placed a hold on the policy while litigation moved forward.
The school’s policy aims to increase the number of black and Hispanic students attending the high school, which challengers say comes at the expense of a large number of Asian American students because it replaces the merit-based admissions at the school with a lottery-based system.
Parents of the group argued in its lawsuit that Asian Americans make up 70% of the student body at TJ, claiming they were unfairly targeted by the system.
The school’s most recent freshman class was admitted under the new system and saw a stark demographic change from previous school years. The black student population rose from 1% to 7%, while Hispanic representation went from 3% to 11%. Asian American representation declined from 73% to 54%, according to the coalition.
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In the fall Supreme Court term, justices are slated to hear arguments in a pair of cases related to race-based admissions policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, which are accused of using similar race-based admissions policies that petitioners argue have disproportionately harmed Asian American applicants.
