US Supreme Court leaves admissions plan in place at Virginia high school

The US Supreme Court left in place an admissions policy at an elite public high school in Virginia on Tuesday after the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the admissions practice. The plaintiffs in the case argued that the school’s policy discriminates against Asian Americans. Justice Samuel Alito dissented from the majority decision, along with Justice Clarence Thomas.

Alito disagreed with the Fourth Circuit’s ruling, noting that its “decision is based on a theory that is flagrantly wrong and should not be allowed to stand.” He also called the Fourth Circuit’s reasoning “a virus that may spread if not promptly eliminated.”

In May 2023, the Fourth Circuit ruled that the school policy in question did not violate the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the US Constitution. The court found that the policy did not facially discriminate on the basis of race and did not have a disparate impact on Asian American students. Because these elements were not met, the court upheld the policy under rational basis review instead of strict scrutiny, which is a higher level of review.

The high school at the center of the case, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) in Virginia, is a highly competitive and elite public high school. It is often considered one of the top high school’s in the nation. The school is limited to 550 highly sought-after seats. In 2020, the school overhauled its admissions process. In the fall of 2020, TJ enacted a “holistic” policy for the admissions process, which was enacted to help with the lack of diversity the school is known for. Under the new policy, each middle school that feeds into TJ would have a spot saved for 1.5 percent of that middle school’s eighth-grade population. However, a student applying must meet the other requirements, like course prerequisites and GPA.

Under the new policy, the school saw its Hispanic student population rise to 11 percent and its Black student population increase to 7 percent. Both demographic groups originally were 1 percent and 5 percent. 

In June 2023, the Supreme Court effectively ended affirmative action across the country, which allowed US colleges and universities to consider race in their admissions programs. In that case, the court found that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s (UNC) admissions processes did not pass strict scrutiny. The schools insisted that these processes allow colleges to create a more diverse educational environment, which leads to various positive outcomes for their students, which is a compelling interest. However, the court disagreed and found that this was not a compelling interest. Since the court’s June 2023 ruling, there has been litigation over the US Military Academy at West Point’s admissions policy for similar reasons.