Castagnera on Risk Management in Higher Education… and more: Supremes kick the can back down to appellate court in long-awaited UT-Austin affirmative action decision

http://chronicle.com/article/Supreme-Court-Puts-Off-Big/139991/?cid=pm&utm_source=pm&utm_medium=en

Here's the text of the decision:

http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-345_l5gm.pdf

In lone dissent, Justice Ginsberg concludes:

The Court rightly declines to cast off the equal protec- tion framework settled in Grutter. See ante, at 5. Yet it stops short of reaching the conclusion that framework warrants. Instead, the Court vacates the Court of Ap- peals’ judgment and remands for the Court of Appeals to “assess whether the University has offered sufficient evidence [to] prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity.” Ante, at 13. As I see it, the Court of Appeals has already completed that inquiry, and its judgment, trained on this Court’s Bakke and Grutter pathmarkers, merits our

approbation.

Chronicle of Higher Ed opines that decision puts pressure on colleges to better justify affirmative action programs.

http://chronicle.com/article/Supreme-Court-Puts-New/140001/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

Here are discussions of the big decisions behind this latest ruling:

1. Bakke (1978)

http://chronicle.com/article/Bakke-Set-a-New-Path-to/13231/

2. Grutter (2003)

http://chronicle.com/article/Affirmative-Action-Survives/3864/