Fisher v. University of Texas Case Brief Summary | Law Case Explained

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Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin | 570 U.S. 297 (2013)

One of the most controversial topics today is affirmative action in higher education. What role, if any, should a college applicant’s race play in a public university’s decision to admit or reject the applicant? In 2013, United States Supreme Court addressed this issue in Fisher versus University of Texas.

Abigail Fisher, a white high-school student in Texas, applied for admission into the University of Texas at Austin, which admitted only a fraction of its applicants. The university had a two-tiered admission policy. Under the first tier, which covered 75 percent of admitted students, any high school senior in Texas who ranked high in his or her class, typically in the top 7th or 8th percent, automatically would be admitted into the university if they applied.

Under the second tier, for the remaining quarter of admitted students, the university took a holistic approach to assessing students and assigned the students both an academic index and a personal achievement index. That dual approach considered not only academic achievement but also applicants’ essays and a wide variety of personal achievements and circumstances. The latter included leadership activities, work experiences, coming from a low-income home, and an applicant’s race, with a minority student’s race typically increasing that student’s score. The university designed the second tier based on the Supreme Court’s decisions in Grutter versus Bollinger and Gratz versus Bollinger . The expressed goal of the university’s admission policy, including its second tier, was to increase the diversity of its student body.

Fisher, who applied for admission under the university’s second-tier process, was denied admission. She filed a federal lawsuit contending that the university’s second-tier admissions process violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment based on its consideration of an applicant’s race. The district court upheld the university’s policy as constitutional. On Fisher’s appeal, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgment. Although the appeals court stated that it was engaging in strict scrutiny of the university’s admissions policy, the court afforded deference both to the university’s decision to consider diversity as a basis for its race-based policy and the university’s specific manner of considering an applicant’s race.

Fisher successfully petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review her case.

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