‘Coalition for TJ’ ruling shows courts can stop cheating on race preferences
A federal district court recently struck down the Fairfax County School Board’s (FCSB) revamped admissions scheme at the highly selective magnet school, Thomas Jefferson High School, in Alexandria, Va., as racially discriminatory against Asian American students. Although a 2-1 Fourth Circuit panel stayed the Coalition for TJ v. FCSB judgment and the Supreme Court declined to grant an emergency application vacating the stay, leaving the revamped admissions scheme in place for at least another year, its long-term survival is far from certain. In the Fourth Circuit, Judge Allison Jones Rushing dissented vigorously from the stay. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch also voted to grant the emergency motion. Given the interest from at least three justices, this likely will not be the Coalition for TJ’s last trip to the Supreme Court. Media and lawyers who are following the TJ case have thus questioned what its implications are for the Supreme Court cases cha...