US appeals court upholds University of Texas affirmative action policy

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit [official website] unanimously ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday to uphold the affirmative action [JURIST news archive] policy of considering race in student admissions at the University of Texas at Austin (UT) [academic website]. The plaintiffs, two Caucasian students, were denied undergraduate admission to UT in 2008, and subsequently challenged UT’s admissions policy, which allows the university to consider race and ethnicity during admissions processing. The court found that the policy did…