Supreme Court Punts on Racial Discrimination Case
The Supreme Court declined to hear Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence Corp. v. The School Committee for the City of Boston (Boston Parent) on Monday. The court’s refusal to take up the case is bad news because it leaves unresolved a circuit split on what constitutes a violation of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
The Boston Parent Coalition sued the city of Boston in February 2021 for changes to the admissions process for Boston’s prestigious “exam schools,” which they allege were intended to decrease the number of admitted white and Asian students. These allegations are evidenced by the Exam School Admissions Criteria Working Group’s “Projected Shift” chart, which accurately predicted the exam schools’ altered racial composition, and by a member of the group telling the Boston School Committee that the new system would “allow our exam schools to more closely reflect the racial and economic makeup of Boston’s kids,” per PLF’s opening brief.
Evidence of the city’s racial animus is referenced in Justice Samuel Alito’s dissent: School Committee Chairman Michael Loconto mocked Asian names during public comments over Zoom; Vice-Chairman Alexandra Oliver-Dávila texted fellow committee member Dr. Lorna Rivera that she “hate[s] WR,” referring to the predominantly white neighborhood of West Roxbury; and Dr. Rivera replied to Oliver-Dávila that she’s “[s]ick of westie whites.”
Not only was the Committee animated by racial discrimination, but it also produced a racially disparate impact. In the fall following the admissions policy change, the percentage of white and Asian students in seventh- and ninth-grade classes dropped from 33 percent and 21 percent to 24 percent and 16 percent, respectively, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation. However, because these percentages were still above the white and Asian percentage of Boston’s student population, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there was “no evidence of a relevant disparate impact,” as required by Village of Arlington Heights (Arlington Heights)
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