By The Editors

This week a three-judge panel of the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case of Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin. This case is the first federal litigation challenging the use of race in university admissions since the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision upholding the University of Michigan Law School’s race-conscious admissions process in Grutter v. Bollinger.

Josh Civin, an Assistant Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, delivered the oral argument supporting the University’s race-conscious admissions plan on behalf of LDF and the Black Student Alliance at UT Austin.

The challenge to that plan was launched in 2008 by two white students who were denied entry to the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin), the state’s flagship higher education institution. Most students are admitted to the University under the Texas Top Ten Percent Plan, which guarantees admission to all Texas students in the top ten percent of their high school class. The remaining students are admitted under a holistic admissions process that considers race as one of many factors in a student’s application file.

Last year, a federal district court upheld the admissions policy, finding the plan constitutional under a straightforward application of the Grutter decision. The plaintiffs appealed and LDF filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the University’s plan.

Hear the oral argument (WMA) by LDF Attorney Josh Civin.

Read the amicus brief in the case filed by LDF