Supreme Court

Jack Nicastro | 9.26.2024 1:34 PM

A federal judge ruled Tuesday that an alternative admissions program to New York City's competitive high schools is unconstitutional if it intended to achieve racial balancing. Although the program does not prescribe racial quotas or favor candidates directly on the basis of race, a criterion was added in 2018 to achieve a higher representation of black and Hispanic students, according to the plan's announcement.

In Chinese American Citizens Alliance of Greater New York v. Adams (CACAGNY), the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) won a decision in the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeal that could roll back the expanded Discovery Program to New York City's specialized high schools (SHSs). The decision has broader constitutional implications for facially neutral discrimination—policies that are applied equally and superficially neutral but intended to produce disparate outcomes for individuals on the basis of immutable characteristics.

In December 2018, plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction against New York City's Department of Education's (DOE) Discovery Program. The complaint alleged that the program's facially neutral selection process disparately impacted Asian-American applicants to the SHSs.

New York's SHSs are described as "prestigious, highly competitive institutions that are among the best high schools in the country," by the editorial........

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