Topic: Justices will review racial preference for college

[Pandora]

The Supreme Court is setting an election-season review of racial preference in college admissions, agreeing Tuesday to consider new limits on the contentious issue of affirmative action programs.

A challenge from a white student who was denied admission to the University of Texas flagship campus will be the high court's first look at affirmative action in higher education since its 2003 decision endorsing the use of race as a factor.

This time around, a more conservative court could jettison that earlier ruling or at least limit when colleges may take account of race in admissions.

In a term already filled with health care, immigration and political redistricting, the justices won't hear the affirmative action case until the fall.

But the political calendar will still add drama. Arguments probably will take place in the final days of the presidential election campaign.

A broad ruling in favor of the student, Abigail Fisher, could threaten affirmative action programs at many of the nation's public and private universities, said Vanderbilt University law professor Brian Fitzpatrick.

A federal appeals court upheld the Texas program at issue, saying it was allowed under the high court's decision in Grutter vs. Bollinger in 2003 that upheld racial considerations in university admissions at the University of Michigan Law School.

But there have been changes in the Supreme Court since then. For one thing, Justice Samuel Alito appears more hostile to affirmative action than his predecessor, Sandra Day O'Connor. For another, Justice Elena Kagan, who might be expected to vote with the court's liberal-leaning justices in support of it, is not taking part in the case.

Kagan's absence probably is a result of the Justice Department's participation in the Texas case in the lower courts at a time when she served as the Obama administration's solicitor general.

I'm rather surprised the USSC is willing to look at this again so soon, a new court composition notwithstanding.

[Libertas]

I am not optimistic the court (Kennedy) will be able to overcome their (self-applied) white guilt on this issue.

The nation could be 99.9% "minority"    and these progressive racial jackasses would still be pushing AA for the "minority"    races!

To them America was, is and always will be a nation of white racists, nothing will ever change their mind.  And equally forgetable for them is the concept of merit, they have no fricken clue what that is!

Disclaimer-This opinion is coming from a white male who never oppressed anyone of any race, creed or religion and who worked his ass off for everything he got in this world sans freebies and handouts!