June 24th, 2013
10:54 AM ET
High court avoids larger ruling on university's affirmative action admissions policy
By Bill Mears, CNN Supreme Court Producer
Washington (CNN) - The Supreme Court side-stepped a sweeping decision on the use of race-conscious school admission policies, ruling Monday on the criteria at the University of Texas and whether it violates the equal protection rights of some white applicants.
The justices threw the case back to the lower courts for further review.
The court affirmed the use of race in the admissions process, but makes it harder for institutions to use such policies to achieve diversity. The 7-1 decision from the court avoids the larger constitutional issues.
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By the way, Erin Burnett and Anderson Cooper are the best in the business - OK, Brian WIlliams too. They know how to ask the right questions, push when pushing is needed, and show their own personal opinion and outrage without shoving it down our throats. Well done.
The most telling moment on the whole affirmative action debate came when Erin Burnett interviewed Jessie Jackson yesterday. When shown that blacks and women are over-represented in college admissions Jackson first retreated to the old saw of righting 250 years of discrimination, then once he recovered tried to link lower graduation rates to the ills of society and the limiting of academic grants. This shows how irrelevant much of the affirmative action debate is, and how increasingly irrelevant Jessie Jackson has become.