Hopwood v. Texas
Hopwood v. Texas | |
---|---|
Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., Harold R. DeMoss Jr. | |
Case opinions | |
Majority | Smith, joined by DeMoss |
Concurrence | Wiener |
Laws applied | |
Equal Protection Clause |
Hopwood v. Texas, 78
The case
After being rejected by the
Texas Monthly editor Paul Burka later described Cheryl Hopwood as "the perfect plaintiff to question the fairness of reverse discrimination" because of her academic credentials and her personal hardships (she has a young daughter suffering from a muscular disease).[5]
After an eight-day bench trial in May 1994, Judge Sparks issued his ruling on August 19, 1994. He determined that the University could continue to use the racial preferences which had been at issue in the litigation.[6] In his ruling, he noted that while it was "regrettable that affirmative action programs are still needed in our society", they were still "a necessity" until society could overcome its legacy of institutional racism. Thereupon, the four plaintiffs appealed the case to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments in the case on August 8, 1995.
Nearly two years after the original trial, on March 18, 1996, the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion, which was written by Circuit Judge
The University appealed the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to review the case on July 1, 1996. In an opinion on the denial of certiorari, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by Justice David Souter, noted that the issue of the constitutionality of race in admission was "an issue of great national importance".[7] However, Justice Ginsburg explained that the University was no longer defending the specific admissions policy that had been at issue in the lawsuit and was rather attempting to justify only the rationale for maintaining a race-based admissions policy. Accordingly, because the Supreme Court reviews judgments and not opinions, Justice Ginsburg stated that it "must await a final judgment on a program genuinely in controversy before addressing the important question raised in this petition". Thus, the Hopwood decision became the final law of the land with respect to the use of race in admissions in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, the three states over which the Fifth Circuit has jurisdiction.
The reaction
University officials were not pleased with the opinion. Shortly after the opinion's release, UT President
The Fifth Circuit's opinion
The Texas legislature passed the Top Ten Percent Rule governing admissions into public colleges in the state, partly in order to mitigate some of the effects of the Hopwood decision.
Later developments
On January 15, 1997,
On June 23, 2003, the Supreme Court abrogated Hopwood in
References
- ^ Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996).
- ^ Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978)
- ^ a b Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003)
- ^ "Cheryl Hopwood vs. State of Texas - Page 1 - News - New York - Village Voice". Archived from the original on June 18, 2012. Retrieved February 1, 2012.
- ^ Burka, Paul (September 1996). "Law • Cheryl Hopwood". Texas Monthly. Archived from the original on February 27, 2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015.
- ^ Hopwood v. State of Texas, 861 F. Supp. 551 (W.D. Tex. 1994).
- ^ Texas v. Hopwood, 518 U.S. 1033 (1996)
- Daily Texan, March 19, 1996.
- ^ Tex. Atty. Gen. Op. LO-97-001, Mr. William P. Hobby (1997)
- ^ Gratz v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 244 (2003)
Further reading
- Bloom, Lackland H. Jr. (1998). "Hopwood, Bakke and the Future of the Diversity Justification". Texas Tech Law Review. 29 (1): 1–74.
- Good, Michael (2007). "An Evaluation of the Impact of Hopwood on Minority Enrollment at the University of Texas at Austin". Applied Research Project. Texas State University.
- Light, Audrey; Strayer, Wayne (2002). "From Bakke to Hopwood: Does Race Affect College Attendance and Completion?". S2CID 57565582.
External links
- Text of Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996) is available from: CourtListener Justia OpenJurist Google Scholar Fifth Circuit (slip opinion)