The Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO) has filed an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States supporting petitioners in the case of Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board (the Board). The case involves a challenge to the racially discriminatory overhaul of the admissions practices at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia.
In urging the Court to take the case, CEO explained that the Board has a long and sordid history of manipulating admissions practices at the elite magnet high school for racial purposes. Specifically, to lower the number of high-achieving and otherwise qualified Asian and white applicants from gaining admission and to boost admission for less qualified applicants on the basis of race, particularly in favor of black applicants. We argue that the indirect way that the Board has sought to racially balance its campus violates the Constitution and represents an example of the next front in the battle against racially discriminatory admissions practices after the Supreme Court decision outlawing affirmative action in college admissions. A special thank you to CEO visiting legal fellow Anthony Pericolo and Anita Kinney for their invaluable work on the brief that you find embedded below.
Ultimately, we want the Court to take the case and to expand on its position in the Fair Admissions case that “eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” It is critical that we resist any efforts to divvy us up by race in order to ensure all benefit from the guarantees enshrined in our Constitution and our civil rights laws.
The Center for Equal Opportunity is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and educational organization that studies issues relating to race and ethnicity nationwide.
