A case challenging the race-neutral admissions policy of an elite Virginia high school won’t be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, CNN reports.
The high court announced Tuesday morning that it will not be taking up the case just months after it rejected the race conscious admissions policies of Harvard and the University of North Carolina.
The enrollment of Asian Americans at Thomas Jefferson High School in Fairfax County dropped from 73% to 54% after it adopted its new admittance policy, according to The Hill.
The school adapted a policy that places the top students from every middle school in the county shortly after protests over George Floyd.
That led to a lawsuit charging discrimination against Asian Americans which a lower court backed but a federal court later overturned.
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Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas opposed the decision by the majority.
“The court’s willingness to swallow the aberrant decision below is hard to understand. We should wipe the decision off the books, and because the Court refuses to do so, I must respectfully dissent,” Alito wrote.
A group called Coalition for TJ alleged the policy had an intent of “racially balance the freshman class by excluding Asian-Americans,” reported NBC.
Lawyers for the school board, however, successfully argued the changes Thomas Jefferson made to the admissions policy “does not seek, cannot be manipulated to achieve, and did not produce racial balance of any kind.”
They also said there was no evidence it had discriminated against Asian American applicants.
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