Appellate Court Declares Black Scholarships Illegal

By Meg Sommerfeld

Washington

A federal appeals court has ruled that a scholarship program for black college students is unconstitutional because it was not "narrowly tailored" to redress past racial discrimination.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit late last month reversed an earlier district-court ruling in favor of the University of Maryland at College Park, a public institution that has offered about 30 full scholarships to academically talented black students each year since 1979. (See Education...