The Supreme Court turned away a group of white and Asian parents’ challenge to a temporary admissions policy at Boston’s prestigious “exam schools” over dissents from two of the court’s conservatives. The parents argued the policy runs afoul of the court’s decision striking down affirmative action in higher education last year, but Monday’s order keeps the justices out of the dispute that would’ve created another major case implicating race and school admissions. Justice Samuel Alito, joined by fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, said they would have taken up the case, calling Boston’s admissions policy a “glaring constitutional error that threatens to perpetuate race-based affirmative action.” “I would reject root and branch this dangerously distorted view of disparate impact. The Court, however, fails to do so today, so I must respectfully dissent,” Alito wrote. Justice Neil Gorsuch, President-elect Trump’s first appointee to the court, in a separate statement said he shared his colleagues’ concerns, but the court was right to stay out of the case because the challenged admissions policy has since been replaced.
The parents argued the policy runs afoul of the court’s decision striking down affirmative action in higher education last year, but Monday’s order keeps the justices out of the dispute that would’ve created another major case implicating race and school admissions.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by fellow conservative Justice Clarence Thomas, said they would have taken up the case, calling Boston’s admissions policy a “glaring constitutional error that threatens to perpetuate race-based affirmative action.”
“I would reject root and branch this dangerously distorted view of disparate impact. The Court, however, fails to do so today, so I must respectfully dissent,” Alito wrote.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, President-elect Trump’s first appointee to the court, in a separate statement said he shared his colleagues’ concerns, but the court was right to stay out of the case because the challenged admissions policy has since been replaced.