On Wednesday morning the United States Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the most important civil rights case to come before the justices in the past six years: a challenge to the use of race as a factor in admissions at the University of Texas.
The first Monday in October is the traditional start of the Supreme Court’s new term. Last term was a blockbuster, dominated by health care and immigration. But this one looks like it, too, and will be one of the most important in years.
The case involves Abigail Fisher, a white woman who applied to the school in 2008.
She was not entitled to automatic admission under Texas’ “top 10 percent rule,” which by law requires the university to admit all in-state high school seniors who rank academically in the top 10 percent of their classes.
