Attorney General Ken Paxton joined a multi-state amicus brief in an emergency application to the U.S. Supreme Court in a racial discrimination case against Fairfax County School Board in Virginia, the state’s largest school district. The Board’s admissions criteria had been merit-based, but after violence and protests across the country ensued following the murder of George Floyd, the Board issued new admissions criteria intended to reduce the number of Asian-American students and to achieve a progressive vision of racial balance.
A district court rejected Fairfax’s policy as violative of the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection guarantee, but the Fourth Circuit stayed the ruling on appeal. Virginia is now asking the Court to rescind the stay and prohibit the school board from discriminating against Asian-American students.
Fairfax School District is home to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, one of the most highly-ranked public high schools in the country. If the Board is ultimately allowed to engage in racial discrimination, Asian-American students would be unfairly deprived of that education, and the opportunities it affords, based solely on their race.
To read the brief click here.