Supreme Court to hear a new case on race and school admissions, this time in Maryland

The Supreme Court has taken up another dispute over race-conscious school admissions, this time involving selective magnet programs in Montgomery County, Maryland, a large and diverse suburb of Washington, D. C. NBC News reports that the justices will hear an appeal from the Association for Education Fairness, which wants its suit against the county school board reinstated. Because the question before the court is a technical one about what proof challengers must offer, a ruling on the broader constitutional issue is not expected.

The group contends that the admissions rules for the county's STEM and humanities magnet programs at four middle schools favor Black and Latino applicants, violating the 14th Amendment. The current system uses a lottery adopted during the Covid pandemic, with eligibility determined by how students' test results compare with classmates at their own school. The plaintiffs say this hurts Asian students at high-performing schools. They also object to an earlier approach, begun in 2017 and since dropped, that used outreach and a cognitive test to bring in more children from low-poverty areas after a study found Black and Latino students underrepresented. Both the federal trial judge and the appeals court in Richmond sided with the school district.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NBC News’s reporting. Read the full story at NBC News →