Lawyers’ Committee SCOTUS Brief Garnering National Attention

This week’s oral argument before the Supreme Court on affirmative action in higher education ranged widely, with different Justices coming at the issue from a variety of perspectives.  Notably, Justice Scalia raised the “mismatch” theory towards the end of the argument, musing aloud whether African-American students are better off at “slower-track” schools that are not “too fast for them” (p.67).

As the national press has widely reported, this is the precise issue that an amicus brief filed by the Lawyers’ Committee conclusively rebuts, on behalf of prominent empirical scholars from across the country. Today’s New York Times reports on the issue, specifically highlighting the arguments in our brief and extensively quoting Oren Sellstrom, our Litigation Director.

We are proud to have co-counseled on this important brief with our pro bono allies at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. and proud to be a key part of this national conversation on race and affirmative action.