Supreme Court kicks affirmative action case back to lower court

In a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court ruled to send an affirmative action policy allowing race to be a factor in college admissions back to a lower court for “strict scrutiny.”

The case challenges a University of Texas admissions plan that allows admissions departments to consider race when admitting and denying students, according to Forbes. It was filed by a white female student in 2008 who was not admitted into the school.

The Court ruled that the district court had failed to apply “strict scrutiny” in the case, reports Deseret News.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that the “reviewing court must ultimately be satisfied that no workable race-neutral alternatives would produce the educational benefits of diversity.”

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was the lone dissenter. Justice Elena Kagan recused her vote, because of a prior relationship with the case before joining the Court.

The University has a policy that automatically accepts any graduating high school student in the top 10% of his or her class, but some disagree with this plan.

“While the top-10 percent plan vastly expanded the number of Texas high schools sending graduates to the state's flagship campus, UT administrators frowned at having to accept applicants from less competitive high schools, whose top students often had lower test scores and poorer academic preparation than middle-tier students from leading suburban high schools that traditionally served as the university's principal feeders,” explains the Wall Street Journal.