This brief and three others are the result of a collaboration between the Civil Rights Project and the Educational Testing Service, "Strengthening Campus Diversity: How Do We Address This Important Issue?" This paper examines using correlated indicators for a student’s race, rather than using the student’s actual race, in admission decisions for universities.

This amicus brief seeks that contains the newest and most rigorous peer-reviewed research and statistical analyses so the Court can be informed when considering an issue that is so critical for all of the nation’s selective colleges and universities. We provide the Court with the most reliable social science evidence that bears directly on whether the Fifth Circuit faithfully applied the Court’s standards in Fisher v. University of Texas, 133 S. Ct. 2411 (2013), in concluding that UT Austin’s admissions policy withstands strict scrutiny. This brief reflects a broad consensus shared by the hundreds of undersigned researchers at leading universities across the U.S. on the key issues before the Court.

CRP offers this brief summary of major research findings to help university leaders and communities formulate plans and justifications that both satisfy the legal requisites of strict scrutiny and have a firm grounding in research.

The undersigned scholars have created an independent assessment of the ruling in Fisher v. University of Texas, at Austin, announced June 24, 2013 by the U.S. Supreme Court. The statement hails the reaffirmation of the precedents of the last 35 years supporting affirmative action, and concludes that there is no reason for colleges to abandon their programs. The statement also advises universities that they will need to provide ongoing documentation of the reasons for their plan and that their consideration of race is carried out to the degree necessary to achieve diversity.

American social scientists from all parts of the country present a summary of research findings to the Supreme Court as it prepares to hear a key case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, on the future of integration in America’s colleges this October.

The following works are cited in the Brief of American Social Science Researchers in Fisher v University of Texas at Austin.

American social scientists from all parts of the country present a summary of research findings to the Supreme Court as it prepares to hear Fisher v. University of Texas, a key case on the future of integration in America’s colleges this October. We hope that this brief will be of use to other parties participating in all American colleges and to the justices and the clerks themselves. Hundreds of experts have participated in this important effort to communicate what is known about the obstacles to and the conditions for achieving successfully diverse campuses that can best prepare young Americans to live and work in an extremely multiracial future.

Notwithstanding the initial commitment to educate “all portions” of the state’s youth, underrepresented minorities (URMs) have never achieved equal representation in the UC and their representation has declined since the mid-1990s just as their share of the state’s population has burgeoned. This paper briefly reviews the various efforts undertaken by the University of California to maintain diversity in the institution, in the face of the loss of affirmative action during the mid-1990s.

Amici curiae are the daughter and nephews of Heman Marion Sweatt, who in 1946 was denied admission to The University of Texas Law School for one reason: “the fact that he is a negro.” Texas law forbade UT from considering any of his other qualities: not his intelligence, not his determination, not the grit he gained living under and fighting Jim Crow.

This case reexamines the Supreme Court’s decisions interpreting the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, including Grutter v. Bollinger, with regards to University of Texas at Austin’s use of race in undergraduate admissions decisions. This page offers briefs, statements, video recordings, background information and other resources about the case by the Civil Rights Project and partners.

THE CRP maintains legal briefs, memos, policy papers, and research related to many major legal decisions involving education policy and civil rights.