Supreme Court justices have temporarily reinstated a wake-up admissions policy at one of America’s top schools, despite a federal judge previously ruling that it was racist.
The High Court did not explain its order Monday, which allows Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to continue applying its admissions policy while the Fairfax County School Board appeals the lower court’s February ruling.
The Fairfax County School Board changed its admissions policy after the May 2020 killing of George Floyd to strengthen “justice” at the school.
Black and Hispanic students made up a very small portion of the student body. That has since changed — but Asian-American parents say it’s at the expense of their children and that it’s racist.
The US Supreme Court refused to block a Virginia public high school’s admissions policy aimed at increasing its racial and socioeconomic diversity. Pictured above is the school in question, Thomas Jefferson High School
At a school board meeting in March, parents and some Asian-American parents in Fairfax County protested the “unfair” admissions process, saying the policy discriminated against their children.
On that occasion, the US Supreme Court decided not to intervene to prevent Fairfax County Public Schools from applying the admissions policy for the next school year.
The county’s public school system made changes to try to bring more diversity into the school, leading to a lawsuit against the school board.
Judges Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas said they granted parent group Coalition for TJ’s motion to stay admissions policy.
The court has a 6-3 conservative majority, with the wake-up policy likely to be scrapped if it appears before the judges as a full case.
Asra Q. Nomani is the mother of a 2021 TJ grad and co-founder of the Coalition for TJ and Vice President of Parents Defending Education, which sued the school
In February, the group convinced US District Judge Claude Hilton that a new policy that has increased black and Hispanic representation amounts to improper “racial balancing” at the selective school near the nation’s capital.
It is often ranked as one of the top public high schools in the country.
Asian American students made up more than 70% of the student body.
Under the new policy used to accommodate the school’s current freshman class, Asian American representation dropped to 54%. Black students increased from 1% to 7% and Hispanic representation increased from 3% to 11%.
Anti-Critical Race Theory activist Asra Nomani, whose child graduated from school last year, claimed school makes race a factor in admission criteria and discriminates against Asian children.
She said that TJ, which was ranked the nation’s number one school in last April’s US News Best High Schools report and is a public school that charges no tuition, has made “systematic efforts” to reduce the number of Asian students who join the school.
Nomani said she and her fellow campaigners were disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision but hoped their case would ultimately be upheld.
Hilton had ordered the new policy to be stayed, but the federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, said it could be used while the case remains in court.
Plaintiffs in the case said that increasing the number of black students “had a significant adverse effect on Asian-American students … to achieve desired racial balance.”
Judges Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas, all seen left, said they granted parent group Coalition for TJ’s request to stay admissions policy
The school board also stated that the policy is racially neutral because it does not set racial targets and the race of applicants is not known to admissions officers.
In a statement Monday night, the Coalition for TJ said: “We had hopes that we would win this fight to clear the stay in the country’s highest court, but our fight for justice is not over. We can’t be dissuaded at all.’
A statement from Fairfax County Public Schools said: “Today’s action by the U.S. Supreme Court will allow a racially blind and fair admissions process to be passed for the freshman class starting this fall at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ). The fourth US Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond is reviewing the underlying appeal. The Fourth Circuit has granted Fairfax County Public Schools’ request for an expedited timetable to resolve legal issues associated with the admissions process.’
“We continue to believe our new plan for TJ admissions is merit-based and race-blind,” said FCPS Division Counsel John Foster. ‘We are confident that, after reviewing the facts and the law, the Court of Appeals will rule that our plan meets all legal requirements and guarantees that every qualifying student has the opportunity to enter the top public science and technology high school in the country .’