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Cite as:  570 U. S. ____ (2013) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 11–345 
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ABIGAIL NOEL FISHER, PETITIONER v. UNIVERSITY 
OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN ET AL. 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE FIFTH CIRCUIT
 

[June 24, 2013] 

JUSTICE KENNEDY delivered the opinion of the Court. 
The University of Texas at Austin considers race as one 
of various factors in its undergraduate admissions process. 
Race is not itself assigned a numerical value for each ap-
plicant,  but  the  University  has  committed  itself  to 
increasing racial minority enrollment on campus.  It refers 
to this goal as a “critical mass.”  Petitioner, who is Cauca-
sian,  sued  the  University  after  her  application  was  re-
jected.  She  contends  that  the  University’s  use  of  race  in 
the admissions process violated the Equal Protection Clause
of the Fourteenth Amendment. 

The  parties  asked  the  Court  to  review  whether  the
judgment  below  was  consistent  with  “this  Court’s  deci-
sions interpreting the Equal Protection Clause of the Four-
teenth  Amendment,  including  Grutter  v.  Bollinger,  539 
U. S.  306  (2003).”  Pet.  for  Cert.  i.  The  Court  concludes 
that  the  Court  of  Appeals  did  not  hold  the  University
to  the  demanding  burden  of  strict  scrutiny  articulated
in Grutter and Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U. S. 
265, 305 (1978) (opinion of Powell, J.).  Because the Court 
of  Appeals  did  not  apply  the  correct  standard  of  strict