Docket number: 23-1137 (U.S.)
The Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute filed an amicus brief with the American Civil Rights Project and Manhattan Institute supporting Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence Corp.’s petition for writ of certiorari by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case challenges an admissions process used by three prestigious “exam schools” operated by Boston Public Schools that is transparently and unconstitutionally based on racial proxies, with the goal of achieving a preferred racial balance—echoing the heinous pre-Civil Rights Era practice of allocating children’s educational opportunities based on race.
Admission to the exam schools traditionally has been decided on a merit-based composite score based on GPA and an admissions exam. In 2019, Boston’s School Committee developed a new policy that committee members expressly acknowledged was intended to—and did—change the schools’ racial balance to include more of preferred racial groups while reducing the number of Asian American and white students. By establishing a zip code quota that admitted students from each zip code on the basis of GPA, students who would have earned admission under the previous merit-based, citywide admissions policy were denied admission.
Although the First Circuit found intentional discrimination by the School Committee, it held the intentionally discriminatory plan lawful nevertheless, it said, because the plan had less impact on applicants of the races targeted for decline (Asian and white), as they continued to earn admission spots at a rate above their share of the applicant pool. The Court declined to apply strict scrutiny in reaching its decision.
HLLI’s amicus brief argued that the lower court should have applied strict scrutiny to the school’s intentionally discriminatory racial balancing and that the Supreme Court’s precedents establish that race-balancing cannot ever satisfy strict scrutiny.
Case Documents
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| May 20, 2024 | AMICUS BRIEF of Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute |