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6 

FISHER v. UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN 

THOMAS, J., concurring 

deed, the argument that educational benefits justify racial
discrimination was advanced in support of racial segrega-
tion in the 1950’s, but emphatically rejected by this Court.
And just as the alleged educational benefits of segregation
were  insufficient  to  justify  racial  discrimination  then,  see 
Brown  v.  Board  of  Education,  347  U. S.  483  (1954),  the 
alleged  educational  benefits  of  diversity  cannot  justify 
racial discrimination today. 

1 
Our desegregation cases establish that the Constitution 
prohibits public schools from discriminating based on race, 
even if discrimination is necessary to the schools’ survival.
In Davis v. School Bd. of Prince Edward Cty., decided with 
Brown,  supra,  the  school  board  argued  that  if  the  Court 
found  segregation  unconstitutional,  white  students  would 
migrate  to  private  schools,  funding  for  public  schools
would decrease, and public schools would either decline in
quality or cease to exist altogether.  Brief for Appellees in 
Davis v. School Bd. of Prince Edward Cty., O. T. 1952, No. 
191, p. 30 (hereinafter Brief for Appellees in Davis) (“Vir-
ginians . . . would no longer permit sizeable appropriations
for schools on either the State or local level; private segre-
gated  schools  would  be  greatly  increased  in  number  and 
the  masses  of  our  people,  both  white  and  Negro,  would 
suffer  terribly. . . .  [M]any  white  parents  would  withdraw
their children from the public schools and, as a result, the 
program  of  providing  better  schools  would  be  abandoned” 
(internal  quotation  marks  omitted)).    The  true  victims  of 
desegregation,  the  school  board  asserted,  would  be  black 
students,  who  would  be  unable  to  afford  private  school.
See id., at 31 (“[W]ith the demise of segregation, education 
in  Virginia  would  receive  a  serious  setback.  Those  who 
would suffer most would be the Negroes who, by and large, 
would  be  economically  less  able  to  afford  the  private
school”);  Tr.  of  Oral  Arg.  in  Davis  v.  School  Bd.  of  Prince