A group of parents filed a petition this week asking the Supreme Court to hear a case alleging the admissions process at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the prestigious magnet school in Virginia, racially discriminates against Asian American students.
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Thomas Jefferson, locally known as TJ and often ranked as the best high school in the country, revised its admissions process in 2020 in part to boost diversity at the school that had long enrolled single-digit percentages of Black and Hispanic students. The revisions led to the most diverse class in recent history, boosting Black and Latino enrollment, as well as adding more low-income students, English-language learners and girls than prior classes.
The changes also led to a dip in Asian American representation, from roughly 70 percent to about 50 percent — sparking pushback from some parents and community members who alleged that the new policy was discriminatory. Coalition for TJ, a group that formed in opposition to the admissions changes, filed a lawsuit in 2021 alleging that the admissions process was specifically designed to drive down the number of Asian American students.
Last year, a U.S. district judge sided with the parent group, calling the admissions process “racial balancing” and “patently unconstitutional.” Then in May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, ruling in favor of the Fairfax County School Board and stating that the process did not discriminate against Asian American students.
On Monday, the Pacific Legal Foundation, representing the Coalition for TJ, filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the 4th Circuit’s opinion.
Read the petition here
The petition comes more than a month after the Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill violated the constitution, rolling back years of admissions precedent. Some experts said they anticipate seeing more race-neutral policies like those at TJ — which considers factors other than race, like neighborhood or socioeconomic status — as a way to admit diverse classes under the new restrictions. They also expect to see more legal challenges of race-neutral policies.
In its petition to the Supreme Court, plaintiffs said the case merits review because “it presents a question of national importance that the Court has yet to answer directly” about competitive K-12 admissions criteria.
“The Supreme Court made clear in Students for Fair Admission that the Constitution bans discrimination based on race, full stop,” Joshua Thompson, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. “TJ’s admission overhaul tried to hide its discriminatory purpose behind a patina of race-neutrality. But the school’s proxy discrimination clearly violated Chief Justice Robert’s warning against indirect discrimination.”
On Tuesday, a group of organizations around Virginia denounced the petition, saying in a news release that the admissions changes were an important step that “expanded access to the specialized, publicly-funded high school for students from a wider range of economic, racial, and geographic backgrounds in the district.”
Thomas Jefferson High, locally known as TJ, is cons
In 2020, the Fairfax County School Board voted to use a more “holistic review” of applicants to Thomas Jefferson High. The changes included removing a notoriously difficult admissions test and $100 application fee, as well as considering applicants on four “experience factors”: income status, English-speaking ability, whether the applicant has a disability and whether the applicant comes from a historically underrepresented school. Applicants were required to achieve an unweighed grade-point average of at least 3.5 while taking higher-level courses, as well as complete a problem-solving essay and a “Student Portrait Sheet.”
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In February 2022, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ruled that “the purpose of the Board’s admissions overhaul was to change the racial makeup to TJ to the detriment of Asian Americans” and issued an order forbidding Fairfax from using its revised admissions system. Hilton called the policy “patently unconstitutional” and said the decision to implement it was rushed.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court will be considering the TJ case.
In 2022, when Fairfax schools appealed Hilton’s ruling, the 4th Circuit granted a request for the school division to continue using the new admissions system while the legal battle continued. The Coalition for TJ then asked the Supreme Court for emergency action reinstating Hilton’s order and forbidding school administrations from using the policy. The high court declined, but three justices indicated that they disagreed with the decision.
It’s unclear if the Supreme Court will take up the case this time. The court only takes up 100 to 150 of more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review each year, which makes hearing the TJ case unlikely but not impossible, legal experts said.
Sonja Starr, a law professor at the University of Chicago who is closely following the legal fight, said that since three justices previously ruled in favor of hearing the case in 2022, it’s possible that the court would want to take up the issue. It’s also possible, Starr said, the court may wait to see how other race-neutral admissions challenges play out in lower courts first.
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Starr said that if the court took up the case, and ruled in favor of the Coalition for TJ, it would limit the consideration of “race-neutral” factors, making admissions even more colorblind and vastly affect how schools admit diverse classes. Even if the court does not take up the TJ case, she said there would be similar battles to consider in the future.
“The big question is: How far do they want to go, and how quickly do they want to get there?” Starr said.
Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.
Thomas Jefferson, locally known as TJ and often ranked as the best high school in the country, revised its admissions process in 2020 in part to boost diversity at the school that had long enrolled single-digit percentages of Black and Hispanic students. The revisions led to the most diverse class in recent history, boosting Black and Latino enrollment, as well as adding more low-income students, English-language learners and girls than prior classes.
The changes also led to a dip in Asian American representation, from roughly 70 percent to about 50 percent — sparking pushback from some parents and community members who alleged that the new policy was discriminatory. Coalition for TJ, a group that formed in opposition to the admissions changes, filed a lawsuit in 2021 alleging that the admissions process was specifically designed to drive down the number of Asian American students.
Last year, a U.S. district judge sided with the parent group, calling the admissions process “racial balancing” and “patently unconstitutional.” Then in May, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit reversed the lower court’s decision, ruling in favor of the Fairfax County School Board and stating that the process did not discriminate against Asian American students.
On Monday, the Pacific Legal Foundation, representing the Coalition for TJ, filed a petition asking the Supreme Court to review the 4th Circuit’s opinion.
Read the petition here
The petition comes more than a month after the Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill violated the constitution, rolling back years of admissions precedent. Some experts said they anticipate seeing more race-neutral policies like those at TJ — which considers factors other than race, like neighborhood or socioeconomic status — as a way to admit diverse classes under the new restrictions. They also expect to see more legal challenges of race-neutral policies.
In its petition to the Supreme Court, plaintiffs said the case merits review because “it presents a question of national importance that the Court has yet to answer directly” about competitive K-12 admissions criteria.
“The Supreme Court made clear in Students for Fair Admission that the Constitution bans discrimination based on race, full stop,” Joshua Thompson, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. “TJ’s admission overhaul tried to hide its discriminatory purpose behind a patina of race-neutrality. But the school’s proxy discrimination clearly violated Chief Justice Robert’s warning against indirect discrimination.”
On Tuesday, a group of organizations around Virginia denounced the petition, saying in a news release that the admissions changes were an important step that “expanded access to the specialized, publicly-funded high school for students from a wider range of economic, racial, and geographic backgrounds in the district.”
Thomas Jefferson High, locally known as TJ, is cons
In 2020, the Fairfax County School Board voted to use a more “holistic review” of applicants to Thomas Jefferson High. The changes included removing a notoriously difficult admissions test and $100 application fee, as well as considering applicants on four “experience factors”: income status, English-speaking ability, whether the applicant has a disability and whether the applicant comes from a historically underrepresented school. Applicants were required to achieve an unweighed grade-point average of at least 3.5 while taking higher-level courses, as well as complete a problem-solving essay and a “Student Portrait Sheet.”
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In February 2022, U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ruled that “the purpose of the Board’s admissions overhaul was to change the racial makeup to TJ to the detriment of Asian Americans” and issued an order forbidding Fairfax from using its revised admissions system. Hilton called the policy “patently unconstitutional” and said the decision to implement it was rushed.
This is not the first time the Supreme Court will be considering the TJ case.
In 2022, when Fairfax schools appealed Hilton’s ruling, the 4th Circuit granted a request for the school division to continue using the new admissions system while the legal battle continued. The Coalition for TJ then asked the Supreme Court for emergency action reinstating Hilton’s order and forbidding school administrations from using the policy. The high court declined, but three justices indicated that they disagreed with the decision.
It’s unclear if the Supreme Court will take up the case this time. The court only takes up 100 to 150 of more than 7,000 cases that it is asked to review each year, which makes hearing the TJ case unlikely but not impossible, legal experts said.
Sonja Starr, a law professor at the University of Chicago who is closely following the legal fight, said that since three justices previously ruled in favor of hearing the case in 2022, it’s possible that the court would want to take up the issue. It’s also possible, Starr said, the court may wait to see how other race-neutral admissions challenges play out in lower courts first.
Hear from four TJ students admitted under controversial circumstances
Starr said that if the court took up the case, and ruled in favor of the Coalition for TJ, it would limit the consideration of “race-neutral” factors, making admissions even more colorblind and vastly affect how schools admit diverse classes. Even if the court does not take up the TJ case, she said there would be similar battles to consider in the future.
“The big question is: How far do they want to go, and how quickly do they want to get there?” Starr said.
