Online symposium: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin

KALI BORKOSKI AUG 28, 2012 11:55 AM

Note to readers: All of the posts published as part of this symposium are here. 

Next week the blog will host an online symposium on Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the challenge to the university’s undergraduate admissions policy.  The petitioner in the case, Abigail Fisher, is a white student; in 2008, she was denied admission to the university’s flagship Austin campus.  She then filed a lawsuit, arguing that because minority students with less impressive academic credentials were admitted when she was not, she was the victim of unconstitutional racial discrimination.  After both lower courts ruled against her, she filed a petition for certiorari, which the Court granted earlier this year.   The Court will hear oral arguments in the case on October 10.

As with some of our other online symposium, Lyle Denniston will provide background information on the case with a “Made simple” post at the start of the symposium.   And we are grateful to the following guest contributors, who will weigh in on how the Court is likely to (or should) rule in the case and why:

• Vikram Amar – UC Davis School of Law
• Joshua Civin – NAACP Legal Defense Fund
• Roger Clegg – Center for Equal Opportunity
• David Bernstein – George Mason University School of Law
• Adam Winkler – UCLA Law School and David Gans – Constitutional Accountability Center
• Vincent Eng –  National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium and Columbia Law School
• Gail Heriot – University of San Diego School of Law
• Richard Kahlenberg – The Century Foundation
• Richard Sander – UCLA School of Law and  Stuart Taylor, Jr. – Brookings Institution
• Richard Thompson Ford – Stanford Law School
• Walter Weber – The American Center for Law and Justice

[Disclosure:  The firm of Goldstein & Russell, P.C., whose attorneys work for and contribute to this blog in various capacities, represents the Association of American Law Schools as an amicus in support of the university in this case.]

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