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4 

FISHER v. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 

Opinion of the Court 

ically  awarded  points  to  applicants  from  certain  racial 
minorities. 

The  University’s  plan  to  resume  race-conscious  admis-
sions  was  given  formal  expression  in  June  2004  in  an  in-
ternal  document  entitled  Proposal  to  Consider  Race  and
Ethnicity  in  Admissions  (Proposal).    Supp.  App.  1a.  The 
Proposal  relied  in  substantial  part  on  a  study  of  a  subset
of  undergraduate  classes  containing  between  5  and  24
students.  It showed that few of these classes had signifi-
cant enrollment by members of racial minorities.  In addi-
tion  the  Proposal  relied  on  what  it  called  “anecdotal” 
reports  from  students  regarding  their  “interaction  in  the 
classroom.”  The  Proposal  concluded  that  the  University 
lacked  a  “critical  mass”  of  minority  students  and  that  to 
remedy  the  deficiency  it  was  necessary  to  give  explicit
consideration  to  race  in  the  undergraduate  admissions 
program.

To  implement  the  Proposal  the  University  included  a 
student’s  race  as  a  component  of  the  PAI  score,  begin- 
ning  with  applicants  in  the  fall  of  2004.    The  University 
asks  students  to  classify  themselves  from  among  five
predefined racial categories on the application.  Race is not 
assigned an explicit numerical value, but it is undisputed 
that race is a meaningful factor.

Once  applications  have  been  scored,  they  are  plotted 
on  a  grid  with  the  Academic  Index  on  the  x-axis  and  the
Personal  Achievement  Index  on  the  y-axis.  On  that  grid
students  are  assigned  to  so-called  cells  based  on  their 
individual scores.  All students in the cells falling above a
certain line are admitted.  All students below the line are 
not.  Each college—such as Liberal Arts or Engineering—
admits  students  separately.  So  a  student  is  considered 
initially  for  her  first-choice  college,  then  for  her  second 
choice, and finally for general admission as an undeclared 
major.

Petitioner applied for admission to the University’s 2008