As the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Wednesday in Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the latest in a long line of cases to challenge race-conscious college admissions, protesters gathered outside.
In front of the court’s steps, members of civil-rights groups stood around a podium, holding up signs that said "#Opportunity4ALL" and "#fishervut." On the other side of the sidewalk, counterprotesters chanted, "No more racial quotas!"
It was the second time Fisher had been heard here — in 2013 the court issued a limited ruling that did not broadly revisit affirmative-action policies — and the scene outside may have seemed familiar.
'Fisher' in Context: Making Sense of Today's Oral Arguments
What will tomorrow's college admissions look like? Campus experts weren't certain after the Supreme Court's first ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, in 2013. Nor are they certain now, as the court heard new oral arguments in the case on Wednesday.
But there's much to say about the future of race in admissions. A collection of Chronicle articles that puts Fisher in a broader campus context is available here.
But now the case returned to the court amid racial protests on campuses across the country. Outside the building, protesters — mostly civil-rights leaders, not students — occasionally cited events of the past year, on campus and off, arguing that the case could affect minority populations for decades to come.
"What happens here is related to what happened in Ferguson," said Dennis Parker, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Racial Justice Program. "It’s related to the University of Missouri, and it has to change."
"This case shouldn’t be here again," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, told the crowd. "We should be expanding opportunity, not restricting it."
Read more at The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/This-Case-Shouldn-t-Be/234552