Hopwood v. Texas

Hopwood v. Texas

Supreme Court Case Project by Cristina

THE CASE

LATER DECISIONS

Background

In 1992, Cheryl J. Hopwood, a white female, applied for admission to the University of Texas School of Law, and was rejected. Hopwood, along with three white males, sued the university, arguing their LSAT scores and GPAs were better than those of the majority of the black and Hispanic students admitted. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas found in favor of the university, determining they could continue to use racial preferences as part of their admission decisions.

The reason why the Supreme Court decided to declined to review the case comes from the extreme conservative vision of William Rehnquist, who was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at that time. Infact, in choosing the cases to judge, he did not give importance to equality in the protection and opportunities of minorities; also going against the more liberal opinions of the rest of the members of the court.

Hopwood remained law in the Fifth Circuit until 2003, when the cases against the University of Michigan’s racial preferences were decided by the Supreme Court. The outcome in that case altered the law of the Fifth Circuit by permitting the use of race to achieve diversity under narrowly tailored circumstances.

The case was judged by U.S. District Court Judge, Sam Sparks who had attended and graduated at the University of Texas School of Law.

CONCLUSIONS

DECISIONS OF THE ORIGINAL COURTS

Despite the case being considered a victory; the universities, after receiving the latest updates from the Supreme Court, considered the Hopwood law as a ban on affirmative action (set of policies adopted by governments to take proactive measures to increase the proportion of disadvantaged minority groups).

Consequently they are reassessing their admissions policies and the role that race and ethnicity should play in them; and so we, as a community, must find some way to continue to improve diversity in our university graduate and professional school student bodies.

The plaintiffs appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, which overturned the previous court's decision, in 1996. The court held that "the University of Texas School of Law may not use race as a factor in deciding which applicants to admit in order to achieve a diverse student body".

The university appealed the decision to the United States Supreme Court, which declined to review the case. The decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit thus became the law in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, the states over which the appeals court has jurisdiction.

Works Cited

• “Hopwood v. Texas.” Ballotpedia, ballotpedia.org Hopwood_v._Texas.
• “Previous Chief Justices: William H. Rehnquist, 1986-2005 | Supreme Court Historical Society.” Supreme Court Historical Society, 21 June 2022, supremecourthistory.org/chief-justices/william-rehnquist-1986-2005.
• Center for Individual Rights. “Hopwood V. Texas - Center for Individual Rights.” Center for Individual Rights, 18 Oct. 2021, www.cir-usa.org/case/hopwood-v-texas.
• Wpengine. “The Hopwood Case – What It Says, What It Doesn’t Say, the Future of the Case and ‘The Rest of the Story’ - IDRA.” IDRA - Intercultural Development Research Association, 12 July 2018, www.idra.org/resource-center/the-hopwood-case
• “Affirmative Action - Ballotpedia.” Ballotpedia, 2009, ballotpedia.org/Affirmative_action.