Not the End of Affirmative Action as We Know It - Higher Education: It’s not the end of affirmative action as we know it … or even admissions plans as they exist in Texas, Florida and California. With the Supreme Court’s narrow ruling in Fisher v. Texas that lower courts cannot defer to universities on the form of their affirmative action policies while upholding diversity as a compelling interest, affirmative action under Grutter v. Bollinger still stands.When the Court originally agreed to hear the Fisher case, 10 years after Grutter, much shorter than the 25 year reprieve Justice O’Connor hoped would diminish the need for affirmative action programs, many pundits and scholars (including myself) opined that affirmative action was all but over. However, with the Court’s agreement to hear Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, it was pretty clear that the Court was not leaning toward an affirmative action ban. If so, extending certiorari to Schuette, where the constitutionality of a public referendum on affirmative action is at issue, would have been redundant.
