June 23, 2016: Victory! The Supreme Court has ruled 4-3 that the UT Austin race-conscious admissions program in question is lawful under the Equal Protection Clause.

GLAD joined the National Women’s Law Center, Lambda Legal and allied organizations in filing a friend-of-the-court brief in this case before the U.S. Supreme Court concerning the consideration of race in undergraduate admissions decisions.

The brief argues that racial and ethnic disparities can be diminished when stereotypes are confronted by reality – the daily contacts and differing perspectives offered by students of varying backgrounds. The brief focuses on women and LGBT persons of color, asserting that the cause of eradicating discrimination on the basis of sex, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity “is closely aligned with the interest in eliminating race discrimination” and that “successfully breaking down one form of discrimination tends to reduce others as well.”

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Mayer Brown LLP is lead counsel on the brief.