Affirmative Action on Life Support: Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin and the End of Not-So-Strict Scrutiny

TL;DRAbstract

personal achievement score." 19 The personal achievement score is based on several "soft" factors, such as leadership experience, awards and honors, work experience, community circumstances, and a number of "special circumstances."20 The special circumstances element includes socioeconomic status, family status, and standardized test scores compared to the average in the applicant's high school.21 As a result of substituting the PAI for race, combined black and Hispanic enrollment dropped from 18.6% in 1996 to 15.3% in 1997. 22Later that year, in its own response to Hopwood, the Texas legislature passed what became known as the Top Ten Percent Law, 23 under which all Texas seniors graduating in the top ten percent of their high school class are guaranteed admission to UT. 24 Because Texas high schools remain highly segregated, the Top Ten Percent Law succeeded at increasing minority enrollment.25 By 2004-the last year before UT implemented its current policy-black and Hispanic enrollme

Chat with Paper

AI Agents for this Paper