GRAPEVINE, Texas – In one of their most dramatic choices in a century, local leaders of the Boy Scouts of America voted Thursday to ease a divisive ban and allow openly gay boys to be accepted into the country’s leading youthWASHINGTON – Supreme Court justices sharply questioned the University of Texas’ use of race in college admissions Wednesday in a case that could lead to new limits on affirmative action.
The court heard arguments in a challenge to the program from a white Texan who contends she was discriminated against when the university did not offer her a spot in 2008.
The court’s conservatives cast doubt on the program that uses race as one among many factors in admitting about a quarter of the university’s incoming freshmen. The liberal justices appeared more supportive of the effort.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose vote could be decisive, looked skeptically on Texas’ defense of the program. “What you’re saying is what counts is race above all,” Kennedy said. He has never voted in favor of an affirmative action program but has voiced support for diversity in education.
Abigail Fisher, the rejected 22-year-old student who sued, was among the hundreds of spectators at the arguments.
Also in attendance was retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who wrote the majority opinion in a 2003 case that upheld the use of race in college admissions.
Among the liberal justices who looked more favorably on the Texas admissions system was Justice Sonia Sotomayor. She told Bert Rein, Fisher’s Washington-based lawyer, that he was looking to “gut” the 9-year-old decision.
The university says the program is necessary to provide the kind of diverse educational experience the high court has previously endorsed.
Along with race, the university considers community service, work experience, extracurricular activities, awards and other factors as it seeks to fill out its incoming classes. The bulk of its slots go to students who are admitted based on high school class rank, without regard to race.
In 2008, the freshman class of more than 6,600 included 1,713 black and Hispanic students. Of those, 216 were admitted under the program that is being challenged.
Opponents of the program say the university is practicing illegal discrimination by considering race at all, especially since the school achieves significant diversity through race-blind admissions.
