In May 2022, Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and the companion case against the University of North Carolina. The case concerns the issue of whether colleges can consider race as a factor in admissions. PDE supported Students for Fair Admissions and asked the Court to overrule Grutter v. Bollinger (2003), which had allowed colleges to consider race in admissions.
PDE’s members believe their children should be judged on their own merit, not treated as members of a racial group, and that their children’s education and opportunities suffer when admissions, curriculum, teaching, and discipline decisions are based on anything other than merit. The brief argues:
- Grutter invites schools to get around limits on race-based decisions. The Supreme Court’s ruling in Parents Involved (2007) limited the use of race in K-12 schools, but Grutter encourages schools to find ways around it.
- Grutter fuels growing racial division in K-12 schools. The brief points to examples of race-based instruction, race-based (or absent) discipline, and outright segregation of students by race.
Read the full brief below:
