Supreme Court turns down Boston parents’ challenge regarding racial discrimination in prestigious high school admissions

The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal on Monday from parents in Boston who argued that a temporary admissions policy at the city’s prestigious high schools unfairly disadvantaged white and Asian students.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Boston School Committee found it unsafe to administer in-person entrance exams for prominent schools such as Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the O’Bryant School of Math and Science. Consequently, the committee opted to utilize a student’s academic performance along with their neighborhood ZIP codes to determine admission.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas voiced their disagreement with the decision to uphold lower court rulings that favored the admissions policy, which was implemented only once during the pandemic. Justice Neil Gorsuch also expressed concern regarding the approach taken by the Boston School Committee.

A panel from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals asserted that a recent ruling by the Supreme Court in June 2023, which invalidated race-conscious admissions practices in colleges, did not adversely impact Boston’s temporary admissions plan.

Alito described the ruling by the lower court as a significant constitutional misstep that risks extending race-based affirmative action in opposition to the Supreme Court’s previous determinations. Both Alito and Thomas highlighted that race was an essential factor when the new admissions policy was developed by the committee.

In a clarification, this article has been updated to remove the term “exam” from the initial summary, as it was the broader policy being contested.