Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican elected along with Gov. Glenn Youngkin in November, is making his national debut as one of the leading challengers of selective admissions practices at Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School.
Miyares and 15 other attorneys general filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court on Tuesday against admissions practices they claim dilute academic merit as a consideration and unfairly target “Asian-American students because of their race.”
“Right now, there are innocent Virginians unfairly treated and punished not for anything they’ve done, but because of who they are. Thomas Jefferson High School’s new admissions process is state sanctioned bigotry — it’s wrong, and it’s the exact opposite of equality. As Attorney General, I’ll never stop fighting for the equal treatment and protection of all Virginians,” Miyares said in a press readout.
SUPREME COURT COULD TAKE UP ADMISSIONS CASE AT SELECTIVE VIRGINIA HIGH SCHOOL
? BREAKING! Virginia Attorney General @JasonMiyaresVA leads a coalition of 16 states inc Virginia filing an amicus brief in the US Supreme Court to support @coalitionforTJ! He denounces the “state-sanctioned bigotry” Asian Americans today face. He’s on fire + sadly so correct ? pic.twitter.com/EbF9FSDmRk
— Asra Q. Nomani ? (@AsraNomani) April 12, 2022
The school’s policy aims to increase the number of black and Hispanic students attending the high school. Challengers say that comes at the expense of a large number of Asian American students because it replaces merit-based admissions at the school with a lottery-based system.
“Up until last year, the school used a merit-based admissions process to select students,” Miyares said in the readout, adding that communications between members of the Fairfax County School Board “confirmed the discriminatory purpose of this policy change.”
Despite Miyares’s claims, the school system has said its policies are race-neutral and that the panel evaluating student applicants is not aware of their race during reviews.
The Coalition for TJ, a group of parents, students, alumni, and local community members, are suing the Fairfax County School Board for practices they deem discriminatory and filed an emergency application to the Supreme Court. On Friday, Chief Justice John Roberts called for a response from the school system by Wednesday. After that, Roberts will decide on the application, and one of his options includes the ability to refer the case to the full court.
A district judge ruled in February that the admissions process at the high school violated federal law by discriminating against Asian American students, but late last month, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that the school’s admissions policy could remain in place.
The coalition’s lead attorney in the case, Glenn. E. Roper, said in a statement to the Washington Examiner that it was a “good sign” for the chief justice to order the school board to respond.
“We hope that the Court will take the next step and grant our application, reversing the Fourth Circuit’s improper stay and keeping the school board from applying its discriminatory policy to another year of TJ applicants,” Roper said.
The parent group has also claimed that Asian Americans make up more than 70% of the student body but that the school’s present freshman class showed a considerable demographic change after the new policy was implemented.
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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Miyares’s amicus brief was signed by attorneys general from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
The Washington Examiner contacted Fairfax County Public Schools but did not immediately receive a response.
