Connecticut, Other States Defend Affirmative Action

Connecticut, along with 13 other states, joined a coalition urging the U.S. Supreme Court to continue to allow universities to consider an applicant’s race when determining college admissions.

The Supreme Court is hearing case in October involving the University of Texas at Austin. The school is being sued by a white student not admitted to the college.

“For years, public universities have been permitted, under multiple landmark Supreme Court decisions, to take applicants’ race and ethnicity into account as one of many factors in individualized, holistic admissions decisions,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who leads the coalition of states.

He added, “To protect the academic freedom of public institutions of higher learning and to allow them to achieve the full educational benefits of diversity, the Court should stand its ground against efforts to roll back these precedents.”

The brief filed by the coalition argues, “that the states have a compelling interest in achieving the educational benefits of diversity, and that the Constitution permits them to consider race as one factor among many in developing admissions policies.”

In addition to New York and Connecticut, the group includes Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.