The Fairfax County School Board is appealing a federal judge’s ruling that invalidated the recently revised admissions system for the prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology magnet school.
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U.S. District Judge Claude M. Hilton ruled late last month that the admissions program at TJ, as the school is known, discriminates against Asian American applicants and constitutes an illegal act of racial balancing. He was ruling as part of a parent-brought lawsuit that claims the admissions system is discriminatory. Hilton ordered that Fairfax County Public Schools cease using the current TJ admissions system immediately, throwing into limbo the 2,500 students who had already applied for a spot in the Class of 2026 and are now midway through the application process.
Hilton also denied a subsequent request from the school board for a temporary stay of his order, meant to allow the Class of 2026 applicants to proceed through the current admissions system uninterrupted.
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The Fairfax County School Board filed its appeal of Hilton’s ruling on Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.
“We believe strongly that Judge Hilton’s decision just was not reflective of the extensive federal case law that exists in support of race-neutral admissions,” the board’s chair, Stella Pekarsky (Sully), said in an interview Monday. “If we allow this to stand without appeal, it could have far-reaching repercussions well beyond Fairfax County.”
Judge denies Fairfax schools option to leave Thomas Jefferson admissions policy in place
The school district’s filing was made by former U.S. solicitor general Donald B. Verrilli Jr., of the firm Munger, Tolles & Olson, who has agreed to take the case pro bono, according to schools spokeswoman Julie Moult. He was persuaded by two of his firm’s lawyers, who are TJ alumni, Moult said.
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Legal experts were divided over how the 4th Circuit is likely to rule. Some said it depends on the composition of the panel of judges, while others pointed out that the use of race in admissions in higher education is a very open and controversial question. The Supreme Court has agreed in its next term, which begins in October, to hear lawsuits challenging admission practices at Harvard and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The majority-conservative court seems poised to overturn decades of precedent supporting the consideration of race to achieve a diverse student body.
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Kim Forde-Mazrui, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said Fairfax school officials’ best argument is that the TJ admissions system uses race-neutral methods to increase the enrollment of underrepresented students — a tactic that has long been established as legal under precedents including the Supreme Court’s rulings in the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke case and the 2016 Fisher v. University of Texas. Going by those cases, Forde-Mazrui said, the 4th Circuit should uphold the TJ admissions system.
But “if the evidence does show — maybe because of statements people made — that they actually want to reduce Asian numbers in particular, while maintaining White numbers, then I think that will be struck down because that wouldn’t be considered a legitimate purpose,” Forde-Mazrui said.
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Natasha Warikoo, a sociology professor at Tufts University who studies ethnic and racial inequality in education and has been following the TJ case, said she thinks it will be hard to prove Fairfax officials acted to drive down the Asian population.
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“I looked at some of the materials that they claim shows that this was about anti-Asian bias,” she said. “I’m Asian American — I don’t see it.”
Fairfax school officials revised the TJ admissions system in 2020 by removing a $100 application fee and a notoriously difficult test. Instead, the school adopted a “holistic review” process that requires applicants to possess certain academic qualifications, including a high-level course load and grade-point average, but also takes into account students’ “experience factors” including socioeconomic status. The factors do not include race, which is not considered in TJ admissions.
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Officials said the revisions were meant to boost diversity at the school, which has historically enrolled single-digit percentages of Black and Hispanic students. But the alterations immediately drew fire as some parents alleged they were meant to drive down the population of Asian students — a group that has constituted about 70 percent of the student body in recent years, while accounting for about 30 percent of Fairfax County’s overall population.
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In the first year the altered admissions process took effect, TJ admitted the most diverse class of freshmen in recent memory. The percentage of Black, Hispanic and low-income students rose, while the percentage of Asian students dropped to 50 percent. About 22 percent of offers went to White students, a number largely consistent with the preceding four years, when between 17 and 22 percent of offers went to White students.
Hilton’s ruling last month came as part of a lawsuit filed by a group of parents and alumni known as the Coalition for TJ, which is opposed to the admissions changes. The coalition, which is being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation — a conservative legal advocacy group known for fighting against affirmative action — argued that TJ’s admissions system is discriminatory and called for its immediate end.
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In his February ruling, Hilton agreed with the coalition on pretty much every point.
Judge calls Thomas Jefferson High admissions changes illegal
On Monday, coalition member Harry Jackson — who noted that he is a Black father of a son who attends TJ and a half-Asian eighth-grade daughter — said in a statement that it is “disappointing but not shocking that the failed school board members of Fairfax County Publics have chosen to dig in their heels to continue their systemic racism against Asian students.” He said the coalition will “continue to fight.”
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On the opposite side of the debate, the TJ Alumni Action Group — an advocacy group that supports the revised admissions system — issued a statement Monday praising Fairfax schools for appealing the ruling. “We reject the false narrative of anti-Asian discrimination and condemn the one-sided portrayal of the Asian American community,” the group wrote.
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It is unclear when the 4th Circuit will weigh in on the TJ case, although it could take months. The Supreme Court’s ruling in its next term on use of race in admissions could have ramifications for how the TJ case is ultimately decided, according to Harvard law professor Richard H. Fallon Jr.
He said it has historically been harder, under Supreme Court precedent, to justify racial preferences in the K-12 arena than in higher education.
“When the Harvard case is decided, it will undoubtedly have ripple effects,” Fallon said, “because what happens in postsecondary education is obviously not wholly unrelated to what happens in the K-12 context.”
Meanwhile, the Virginia General Assembly last week passed into law a bill that outlaws racial discrimination at Governor’s Schools, which includes TJ. A spokeswoman for Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) said Monday that the governor “looks forward to signing the legislation.”