Congratulations to the students and faculty of the NYLS Racial Justice Project for completing and filing an amicus curiae brief in Fisher v. Univ. of Tex. at Austin, 631 F.2d 213 (5th Cir. 2011), cert. granted 132 S. Ct. 1536 (Feb. 21, 2012) (No. 11-345) a case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear in October. The case is a challenge to UT Austin’s consideration of race as a factor in undergraduate admissions and will be the first time the Court addresses affirmative action in higher education since Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003).The brief was written on behalf of the National Black Law Students Association and responds to arguments in other briefs that race-conscious admissions programs demoralize minority students, exposing them to stigma and academic environments in which they are outmatched. A copy of the brief is attached here.
Hats off to students Matthew Hellman (’12), Christopher Binns (’12), Lailah Pepe (’13), Joycelyn Pittard (’13) and Xan Marshall (’13), and, of course, Professors Deborah Archer, Susan Abraham and Aderson Francois.
