The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has decided not to rehear a lawsuit challenging the race-conscious admission policy at the University of Texas at Austin, effectively leaving in place a decision by three of its members to uphold the policy, and handing a major setback to affirmative-action critics who argue that the policy is unconstitutional because race-neutral alternatives exist.
In a decision announced on Friday, judges of the Fifth Circuit voted, 9 to 7, to deny a request that it rehear the case. The majority did not give a reason for its decision, but five members of the minority joined in writing a dissent strongly denouncing the January ruling—by a three-member panel of the Fifth Circuit’s judges—that the full court was letting stand.
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