SCOTUS revisits affirmative action on campus

Religion and birth control crowd out all the other headlines on the presidential campaign trail. But come this fall, the question of race is likely to enter the mix.The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to take up a case challenging the University of Texas at Austin’s affirmative action program which allows race to be taken into account on freshmen admissions.College student Abigail Fisher claims she was denied admission in 2008 because she is white and argues the university’s race-conscious policy violates her civil and constitutional rights. Fisher is now enrolled as a senior at Louisiana State University, but the case stands.UT currently admits all in-state applicants who are in the top 10% of their high school class. The controversial policy applies to any remaining slots.In 2003, SCOTUS ruled that race could be used as one of the determing factors on whether to admit a student or not at public colleges and universities. This time around the block with the Supreme Court could be different. The makeup of the high court has changed since that landmark ruling, with conservative justices now in the majority 5-4. Justice Elena Kagan disqualified herself from the case, according to the New York Times, most likely because she was involved with it as solicitor general.