Scottus News

The Supreme Court asked the federal government on Monday to weigh whether the judge should step into affirmative action again.in Order list At a private meeting last week, the court asked Acting Deputy Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar to submit a briefing statement expressing the government’s views on challenging Harvard’s racial awareness admissions policy.Even if the judge finally decides Fair Enrollment Student v. Harvard University President and Researcher, The call for government advice may postpone the case until next spring at the earliest.

Five years ago, when Justice Antonin Scalia died and Justice Elena Kagan was withdrawn, a divided court supported the University of Texas’s use of race as part of its undergraduate admissions process. factor.Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for most people Fisher v. University of Texas, Joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.

In his report on the Texas case, Lyle Denniston, former reporter of SCOTUSblog, wrote “The first test of how the lower court responds to the ruling may be the lawsuits against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina.” The case against Harvard filed in November 2014 argued that the university’s discrimination against Asian American applicants violated The Federal Civil Rights Act, but both the District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit ruled that Harvard prevailed.

Fair Enrollment Student Organization is a non-profit organization founded by former stockbroker Edward Blum, who was also the leader of Fisher’s litigation. It came to the Supreme Court in February and asked a judge to review the case.The organization urged judges to rule on two issues: whether Harvard violated the Federal Civil Rights Act; and whether the court should overturn its 2003 ruling Groot v. Bullinger, It believes that the University of Michigan can use race as a factor in its admissions process as part of its efforts to form a diverse student body.

The court where the petition is served is very different from the court where the decision was made Fisher (with Bigger). Although Kagan was not evaded by Harvard’s case, Justice Neil Gorsuch has filled the vacancy caused by Scalia’s death. Justice Brett Kavanaugh succeeded Kennedy after Kennedy’s retirement, and Amy Connie Justice Barrett succeeded Ginsberg after her death last year.

Before consulting the government, the judges considered the case for the first time at a meeting on June 10. There is no deadline for the attorney general to submit her briefing, but the government is unlikely to submit the briefing before the end of November or early December. This will allow judges to reconsider the petition at the meeting in early January-if they are reviewed, in 2021-22 Listen to arguments during the semester. If the government does not submit documents before 2022, the case will almost certainly not be debated until 2022-23, by which time the court will have issued a high-profile opinion. abortion with Gun rights Cases on the 2021-22 file.

The judges will hold another private meeting on Thursday, June 17.We expect the meeting to issue orders at 9:30 am on Monday, June 21

This article is Originally published in Howe on the Court.