Students win a victory for free speech at University of Texas at Austin
Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit handed down a decision in favor of several students challenging speech codes at the University of Texas at Austin. The court held that students were deterred from speaking by UT's restrictive speech codes, and that deterrence was a serious-enough injury to their First Amendment rights to al ...
Justice Alito's dissent in Fisher v. University of Texas highlights discrimination against Asian-Americans
Fisher v. University of Texas was a blow to those battling against racial preferences. However, for those looking for any silver lining, Justice Alito's dissent provides some relief. For the first time in a major affirmative action case, a Supreme Court Justice gave a meaningful discussion about Asian-Americans' place in the racial preference debat ...
Disappointing decision in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
In a 4-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the University of Texas's use of race in its admissions process does not violate the Constitution. Justice Kennedy wrote the Court's opinion. The decision is what you'd expect from an opinion upholding the university's race-based admissions plan -- deferential and uncritical. The Court grants the uni ...
Is the University of Texas engaging in unconstitutional racial balancing?
In Grutter v. Bollinger, the Supreme Court permitted the consideration of race in college admissions for a limited purpose of securing the benefits of a diverse student body. The Court reasoned that a diverse student body helps prepare students for "an increasingly diverse workforce and society, and better prepares them as professionals." Furthe ...
University of Texas law student calls out the Texas Ten Percent Plan
The Daily Texan, the student newspaper of the University of Texas at Austin, recently ran this op-ed by a UT law student advocating the repeal of the Texas Ten Percent Plan. The author called the Plan---which the University uses to admit around three-quarters of its freshman class---"racist" and "discriminatory." The Texas Legislature enacted th ...
Fifth Circuit denies rehearing en banc in Fisher v. University of Texas
The case of Abigail Fisher may be on its way to the Supreme Court a second time. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied her petition for rehearing en banc. Judge Garza filed a short dissent reiterating the points he made in his panel dissent. PLF, joined by our friends at the Center for Equal Opportunity, Reason Foundation, Project 21, an ...
PLF files amicus brief in Fisher v. University of Texas
Today, Pacific Legal Foundation filed this amicus brief in Fisher v. University of Texas—which is in the Fifth Circuit after being remanded from the Supreme Court last summer. We were joined on the brief by the American Civil Rights Institute (ACRI), the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), Individual Rights Foundation (IRF), Reason Foundati ...
PLF statement on Supreme Court’s ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="1126"Supreme Court tells Fifth Circuit to give UT-Austin's policies much more demanding review/caption (Pacific Legal Foundation submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Fisher case, in opposition to the race-based preferences in the University of Texas-Austin's admissions program.) June ...
A narrow-tailoring victory in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
When Abigail Fisher was not offered admission to the University of Texas at Austin she brought an Equal Protection challenge against the school for its use of race in the admissions process. As readers of this blog know, PLF has been involved in the Fisher case for years, submitting briefs in the Fifth Circuit stage, the cert petition stage, and ...
California’s pathetic attempt to defend the University of Texas
Yesterday, the State of California filed this brief in support of the University of Texas in Fisher v. Univerity of Texas at Austin. It is quite the embarassment. Most of the brief is the usual, to-be-expected leftist pseudo-science touting the benefits of "diversity." As PLF pointed out in its brief in Fisher, there is no "social-science" e ...