Should race really be a factor in college admissions?

USA Today reports.

Justices asked to reconsider race in college admissions

WASHINGTON — One of the Supreme Court’s most consistently vexing issues — the use of racial preferences in college admissions — may be returning yet again.

The new challenge is a repeat performance of an old one against the University of Texas’ affirmative action policy, which includes race as one of many factors in rounding out its academic class.

Attorneys for Abigail Fisher, who contends she was denied admission because she is white, asked the justices on Tuesday to hear her case for a second time. In 2013, the court sent her challenge back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, so that judges there could more closely scrutinize the university’s policy.

That court once again upheld the school’s limited use of racial preferences — something the Supreme Court’s conservatives may not have expected when they sent the case back. Now it will be up to those same conservatives whether to take up the issue again.

The Supreme Court also has pending challenges to affirmative action policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, brought by an organization called Students for Fair Admissions — and backed by Edward Blum, the same opponent of racial preferences who organized Fisher’s case. That makes it more likely the justices will agree to hear at least one of the cases.