U. of Texas Is Sued Over Affirmative Action in Admissions. Yes, Again.

Jessica Rinaldi, The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action group, on Thursday sued the University of Texas at Austin, alleging that its consideration of race in admissions violates the Texas Constitution, the group said in a news release.

The nonprofit group, known as SFFA, in 2014 also sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, accusing those institutions of discriminatory admissions practices. The nonprofit accused Harvard of discriminating against Asian-American applicants; the case was tried last year, and a judge is expected to rule this year. Chapel Hill was accused of giving “significant racial preferences” to underrepresented minority applicants.

SFFA said that its latest lawsuit against the University of Texas at Austin is “nearly identical” to another lawsuit the group filed against the university in 2017. The earlier lawsuit was dismissed, but the organization said it was allowed to refile now that it has new members who were rejected by the university in 2018 and 2019. SFFA is a membership organization that comprises “22,000 students, parents, and others,” according to its website.

The organization’s founder is Edward J. Blum, who was also behind another lawsuit against Austin, on behalf of a white applicant who was denied admission in 2008. In that case, Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with the university, upholding its race-conscious policy in 2016.

A university spokesman said the institution had not yet received the new lawsuit.

“We agreed with the judge’s decision to dismiss SFFA’s previous lawsuit,” he said, “and we remain confident in the lawfulness and constitutionality of UT-Austin’s holistic admissions policy.”

Nell Gluckman writes about faculty issues and other topics in higher education. You can follow her on Twitter @nellgluckman, or email her at nell.gluckman@chronicle.com.