Boston parents’ appeal over racial bias in elite high school admissions denied by Supreme Court

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from parents in Boston who alleged that a temporary admissions exam policy for the city’s prestigious high schools was discriminatory against white and Asian students.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the decision of their fellow justices to uphold lower court rulings supporting the temporary policy, which was implemented only once during the COVID-19 pandemic. A third justice, Neil Gorsuch, also expressed concerns about the policy.

The Boston School Committee had decided to suspend the entrance exam requirement for Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and O’Bryant School of Math and Science due to safety concerns related to conducting 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.