Over at How Appealing, Howard Bashman reports on a lawsuit challenging the University of Texas at Austin’s consideration of race in admissions. A white student sued the university over how it considers race after admitting students under its famous 10 percent plan, in which students finishing in the top 10 percent of graduating classes at Texas high schools are automatically accepted at the Austin campus. The Houston Chronicle reports here. The lawsuit by the Project on Fair Representation is here.
Meanwhile, in Oklahoma, backers of a petition drive to end race and gender preferences in public employment, public education, and government contracting are calling it quits amid concerns over whether they gathered enough signatures. The Tulsa World reports here. The Oklahoma Civil Rights Initiative filed this motion to withdraw with the Oklahoma Supreme Court.
The initiative drive had been opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Oklahoma and by the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which filed this objection to the drive.
The Oklahoma effort was part of a plan by the American Civil Rights Institute to pass such initiatives this year in Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, and Nebraska. The Sacramento, Calif., organization was co-founded by former California Board of Regents member Ward Connerly, who led the successful drive to pass such an anti-preference ballot measure in his state, as well as in Michigan and Washington state.