Breaking: Federal Court Finds Virginia Discriminated Against Asians

[Valin]

Power Line

Steven Hayward

Feb. 25 2022

This afternoon a Federal District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, handed down a summary judgment in favor of parents who sued Fairfax County Public Schools for the recent changes in the admissions process for Thomas Jefferson High School, the extremely selective public high school that emphasizes math and science.

The case, Coalition for TJ v. Fairfax County School Board, strikes a significant blow to race-conscious policies in education. The County Board had junked the admissions test system that had previously governed  adopted a “holistic” admissions process in favor of a “holistic” system that is a euphemism for admission quotas. The opinion uses the traditional civil rights device of “disparate impact” against the race-mongers, which was eventually going to happen:

(Snip)

Some of the opinion rests on the rushed and deceptive process by which the Fairfax County School Board planned and implemented the changes (this was done to demonstrate the Board’s illegal racial motivation), but much of the opinion shows how the Board’s new policy exceeded even the lenient provisions of past Supreme Court opinions in race in admissions.

This would seem like an omen for the Harvard and UNC admissions cases pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. It will be interesting to see whether FCPS appeals the case.

Kudos to our friends at the Pacific Legal Foundation who pursued the case in behalf of 200 Virginia families.