Supreme Court rejects parents’ appeal over race bias in elite high school admissions

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Boston parents who claimed a temporary admissions exam policy for the city’s elite high schools discriminated against white students and those of Asian descent.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from their colleagues’ decision to leave in place lower court rulings in favor of the plan, which was used just once during the coronavirus pandemic. A third justice, Neil Gorsuch, said he also was troubled by the policy.

The Boston School Committee had temporarily dropped the entrance exam for Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy and the O’Bryant School of Math and Science because it was not safe to hold exams in-person during the pandemic.

Instead, the committee used student performance and ZIP codes to weigh admission.

A panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a June 2023 Supreme Court ruling striking down race-conscious college admissions policies did not doom Boston’s temporary policy.

Alito called the lower court ruling “a glaring constitutional error that threatens to perpetuate race-based affirmative action in defiance of” the high court’s decision last year.

Alito, joined by Thomas, wrote that it’s clear to him that race was “front and center” when the committee adopted new policy.