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Fisher V. Texas And The Irrelevance Of Function In Race Cases, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

This symposium paper analyzes Fisher v. Texas in the context of the Supreme Court's overall race jurisprudence, demonstrating that the Court's decisions are driven by the form that considerations of race take rather than how those considerations actually operate. The University of Texas admissions plan, when compared to the admissions plan approved at the University of Michigan Law School in Grutter v. Bollinger, is very narrowly tailored. The University of Texas considered race in a smaller portion of admissions decisions and in a more limited way, even when race was considered. The Supreme Court, however, expressed serious skepticism of the …