The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review whether three Boston public schools violated the Constitution with a purported racial diversity policy that admitted students based on their zip codes.
The Epoch Times reports that the decision comes after the court’s recent ruling in Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. Harvard, which struck down racially discriminatory admissions policies at U.S. colleges. Following this ruling, schools have been implementing supposedly race-neutral admission policies, such as using geography, to promote diversity.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the court’s decision not to hear the case of Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence v. The School Committee for the City of Boston.
The Boston Parent Coalition, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, filed a petition on April 17.
The school committee changed its admission criteria for its competitive “exam schools” in the 2021–22 school year, replacing standardized tests with a quota based on applicants’ zip codes. This quota reserved seats for students with the highest grade point average in each Boston neighborhood.
According to the petition, although the number of seats allocated to each neighborhood was based on the population of school-aged children, school officials openly discussed their intention to racially balance the Exam Schools, potentially disadvantaging Asian American and white students.
In 2021, a federal district court dismissed the lawsuit. In 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit upheld the ruling, stating that the zip code-based quota, chosen to alter racial demographics, did not violate students’ equal protection rights.
In his dissent, Alito, joined by Thomas, stated that the court’s refusal to correct this constitutional error could perpetuate race-based affirmative action, contrary to the Students for Fair Admissions decision.
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