Supreme Court to Review Maryland Magnet Admissions Challenge

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review a challenge to Montgomery County, Maryland’s magnet-school admissions process, focusing on what plaintiffs must show to establish that a race-neutral policy has a discriminatory impact. The justices have not ruled on whether the admissions system discriminated against students. The case, Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education, concerns admission to four selective public middle schools. The current system screens eligible students and uses a lottery to assign placements in magnet programs. The Supreme Court’s review is limited to whether challengers must show that the racial group they say was harmed experienced an aggregate disparate impact compared with its share of applicants. The Association for Education Fairness, a group of parents, alleges that the criteria intentionally disadvantage Asian American students while seeking to increase Black and Latino enrollment. The parents argue that measures that appear race-neutral can still discriminate. Those claims remain allegations, not findings by the Supreme Court. Lower courts dismissed the lawsuit. In 2022, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis cited the...