The Supreme Court on Monday stepped back from the brink of calling for an end to affirmative action programs, returning to a lower court the dispute over a race-conscious admissions program at the University of Texas.
Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a 7-1 majority in Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, said that on remand, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit must apply "strict scrutiny" to the question whether the University of Texas "has offered sufficient evidence that would prove that its admissions program is narrowly tailored to obtain the educational benefits of diversity." Kennedy said that in its first review of the Texas program, the circuit gave too much deference to the university.
