Brief calls for reestablishing the “fundamental principles of the Equal Protection Clause”

AUSTIN, TEXAS (August 5, 2014)—Abigail Noel Fisher, who was a victim of reverse discrimination when she applied for admission to the University of Texas in 2008, deserves a full appellate court hearing, the American Civil Rights Union argues in a brief filed today at the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Austin.

Written by ACRU General Counsel Peter Ferrara, the brief notes that in dismissing her case, a three-judge panel “failed to follow the instructions from the Supreme Court upon remand in Fisher v. Univ. of Texas at Austin (2011)… That governing ruling stands for the proposition that the most rigid strict scrutiny applies to racial preferences in public school admissions.”

The brief further states: “Equal Protection rights can only be overcome by policies serving a compelling government interest, as narrowly tailored as possible to serve that interest… The incoming freshman class was just over 25% minority when Abigail Fisher was denied admission precisely because of racial preferences. And UT reached majority minority just a couple of years later…”

“In such a context, further discrimination against white, Asian, Jewish, and other American applicants cannot be justified under the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.”

The brief concludes: “Surely this is the case where the signpost for the end of racial preferences and quotas can be demarked, and the fundamental principles of the Equal Protection Clause can be reestablished.”
READ THE AMICUS BRIEF HERE.