Affirmative Action Case

1. Any case that reaches an upper level court all the way to Supreme Court, involves numerous political actors and parties supporting both sides of the case. First and foremost is the plaintiff, Abigail Fisher. She testified the violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment based on her Caucasian race by the defendant, University of Texas at Austin. The University denied her admission even though she surpassed all requirements and fell into their top 10% guarantee for admission category. The President of the University, Bill Powers, argues that their use of affirmative action respects the rights of all students and is vital to maintaining the diversity that creates a beneficial learning environment on campus. Edward Baum, part of the American Enterprise Institute, is a republican that worked with Fisher on combatting this Affirmative Action case as he has many before in the past. Civil rights groups and individuals such as Baum, assist in swaying the courts to eliminate this factor in
Government institutions hold the power to create new legislation and apply it to scenarios as they see fit. Current government officials have strayed from the framework the built this nation as outlined in the Constitution as well as Bill of Rights. Justice Clarence Thomas said it well when he wrote in his majority opinion, “considering race in college admissions is categorically prohibited by the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law.” Unfortunately equality under the law is not clear, right or wrong, issue. This leaves matters to the Judicial Branch to determine the legality strictly based on the Constitution, or that is how it was intended. Today, legal decisions even in the nation’s highest, most respected court fall to one political party or the other. This is illustrated in the article by the change of attitude on the majority opinion from the 2003 case by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor to the 2013 case by Justice Anthony