High Court Hears Affirmative Action Challenge

Abigail Fisher, right, who sued the University of Texas at Austin after being rejected for admission in 2008, appears outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington last week. The high court heard oral arguments in a challenge of the university’s policy for considering race in college admissions.

—Susan Walsh/AP

Conservative justices push advocates hard on race-based policy

By Mark Walsh

Washington

Affirmative action in college admissions—and by extension the use of race in K-12 education—came under sharp attack from conservative members of the U.S. Supreme Court last week in arguments involving a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas at Austin.

"What is the logical end point" to racial preferences, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wanted to know from the defenders of the policy in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin (Case No. 11-345).

"What is the critical mass of African-Americans and Hispanics at the university that you are...