Hundreds of U.S. Researchers File Brief with U.S. Supreme Court Supporting University of Texas Diversity Policies

For immediate release.

Contact: crp@ucla.edu
       
 --Los Angeles--Scholars from 172 universities and research centers in 42 states have joined together in a brief summarizing key research on affirmative action for the U.S. Supreme Court. This extraordinary document was submitted today, as an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, by the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Scholars have been working on this document for more than six months, as explained in a statement below by CRP co-director, Professor Gary Orfield. The counsel of record submitting the brief is Assistant Professor Liliana Garces of George Washington University.   

The Supreme Court must decide two central constitutional questions in reaching its ruling, both of which can be addressed by research. This brief focuses on evidence from across the country relating to the University’s consideration of race, as one of many factors in evaluating applicants, and as an essential tool to producing a diverse and integrated educational community. It shows that the University and other institutions would lose educationally critical diversity without such policies given the inequality of opportunity in America’s unequal schools and communities.  

Related Resources:

• Brief of American Social Science Researchers
  
• Statement by CRP Co-director Gary Orfield describing the background of the Brief
  
• Resources Related to Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin
  

About the Civil Rights Project:

Founded in 1996 by former Harvard professors Gary Orfield and Christopher Edley, Jr., the Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles is now co-directed by Orfield and Patricia Gándara, professors at UCLA. Its mission is to create a new generation of research in social science and law, on the critical issues of civil rights and equal opportunity for racial and ethnic groups in the United States. It has commissioned more than 450 studies, published 14 books, including five on access to higher education, and issued numerous reports from authors at universities and research centers across the country. The U.S. Supreme Court, in its 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision upholding affirmative action, cited the Civil Rights Project’s research.