UNC-Chapel Hill can keep using race in its admissions process, federal judge rules

UNC-Chapel Hill did not discriminate against white and Asian-American applicants and can keep using race as a factor in its undergraduate admissions process, a federal judge ruled Monday.

“UNC has met its burden of demonstrating with clarity that its undergraduate admissions program withstands strict scrutiny and is therefore constitutionally permissible,” federal district Judge Loretta Biggs wrote in her ruling.

The trial for the admissions case ended nearly a year ago in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Winston-Salem. Lawyers for the university and the group Students for Fair Admissions argued over UNC-CH’s race-conscious admissions process.

“While no student can or should be admitted to this University, or any other, based solely on race, because race is so interwoven in every aspect of the lived experience of minority students, to ignore it, reduce its importance and measure it only by statistical models as SFFA has done, misses important context to include obscuring racial barriers and obstacles that have been faced, overcome and are yet to be overcome,” Biggs wrote.

This is a developing story and will be updated.