Opinion ID: 792253
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: An applicant's qualifications

Text: 65 In the context of university admissions, where applicants compete for a limited number of spaces in a class, the Court in Grutter and Gratz focused its inquiry on the role race may play in judging an applicant's qualifications. The Court's underlying concern was that the admissions policy is flexible enough to consider all pertinent elements of diversity in light of the particular qualifications of each applicant, and to place them on the same footing for consideration, although not necessarily according them the same weight. Grutter, 539 U.S. at 337, 123 S.Ct. 2325 (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted); see Adarand, 515 U.S. at 211, 115 S.Ct. 2097 (The injury in cases of this kind is that a discriminatory classification prevent[s] the plaintiff from competing on an equal footing. ) (emphasis added) (internal quotation marks omitted). The focus on fair competition is due, in part, to the stigma that may attach if some individuals are viewed as unable to achieve success without special protection. See Regents of Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 298, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978) (Powell, J., concurring) (preferential programs may only reinforce common stereotypes holding that certain groups are unable to achieve success without special protection based on a factor having no relationship to individual worth); Croson, 488 U.S. at 493, 109 S.Ct. 706 (Classifications based on race carry a danger of stigmatic harm. Unless they are strictly reserved for remedial settings, they may in fact promote notions of racial inferiority and lead to a politics of racial hostility.). 66 In Grutter and Gratz, in order to prevent race from being used as a mechanical proxy for an applicant's qualifications, the Court required individualized, holistic consideration of each applicant across a broad range of factors (of which race may be but one). Grutter, 539 U.S. at 336-37, 123 S.Ct. 2325; see Gratz, 539 U.S. at 272, 123 S.Ct. 2411 (holding that the undergraduate admissions policy was not narrowly tailored because the automatic distribution of 20 points has the effect of making `the factor of race. . . decisive ' for virtually every minimally qualified underrepresented minority applicant) (emphasis added). This focus on an applicant's qualifications — whether these qualifications are such things as an applicant's test scores, grades, artistic or athletic ability, musical talent or life experience — is not applicable when there is no competition or consideration of qualifications at issue. 67 All of Seattle's high school students must and will be placed in a Seattle public school. 21 Students' relative qualifications are irrelevant because regardless of their academic achievement, sports or artistic ability, musical talent or life experience, any student who wants to attend Seattle's public high schools is entitled to an assignment; no assignment to any of the District's high schools is tethered to a student's qualifications. Thus, no stigma results from any particular school assignment. 22 Accordingly, the dangers that are present in the university context — of substituting racial preference for qualification-based competition — are absent here. See Comfort, 418 F.3d at 18 (Because transfers under the Lynn Plan are not tied to merit, the Plan's use of race does not risk imposing stigmatic harm by fueling the stereotype that `certain groups are unable to achieve success without special protection.') (quoting Bakke, 438 U.S. at 298, 98 S.Ct. 2733). 68