Supreme Court Upholds Admissions Policy at Elite Virginia High School - 2024-02-21

Supreme Court Upholds Admissions Policy at Elite Virginia High School

WASHINGTON: The Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place the admissions policy at an elite public high school in Virginia that some parents claimed discriminates against highly qualified Asian Americans.

The Fairfax County School Board overhauled the Thomas Jefferson admissions process in 2020, scrapping a standardized test.

For the current school year, Black and Hispanic students made up 6.7% and 6%, respectively, of those offered admission, the school board said.

“We have long believed that the new admissions process is both constitutional and in the best interest of all of our students. It guarantees that all qualified students from all neighborhoods in Fairfax County have a fair shot at attending this exceptional high school,” said Karl Frisch, Fairfax County School Board chair.

In 2022, a federal judge found the school board engaged in impermissible “racial balancing” when it overhauled admissions. The appeals court reversed that ruling.

Alito wrote that the district court got it right. The appeals court essentially ruled that “intentional racial discrimination is constitutional so long as it is not too severe,” he wrote.

The parents who challenged the policy say it discriminates against Asian American applicants who would have been granted admission if academic merit were the sole criteria, and that efforts to increase Black and Hispanic representation necessarily come at the expense of Asian Americans.

“The Supreme Court missed an important opportunity to end race-based discrimination in K-12 admissions,” said Pacific Legal Foundation senior attorney Joshua Thompson, who represents the parents who challenged.