A group of white and Asian American parents in Boston are taking their fight over admission to the city’s exam schools to the US Supreme Court, arguing that efforts to diversify enrollment are resulting in discrimination against Asian American and white applicants.
“Wherever competitive admission K-12 schools exist, it seems that policymakers have targeted them for their racial makeup,“ according to a petition filed by the Boston Parent Coalition for Academic Excellence seeking a court review. “And in every one of these circumstances, Asian Americans have been singled out for unfavorable treatment.”
The petition, which was filed on Wednesday and placed on the court’s docket Friday, centers around a one-year temporary admission policy that awarded exam school seats in 2021 based on grades and ZIP codes. It replaced a decades-old practice of admitting students citywide with the highest grades and test scores to Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the O’Bryant School of Math and Science.
The policy change led to a substantial decrease in white applicants getting into the seventh grade — the primary entry point — but a slight increase in Asian American applicants gaining admission. Black and Latino applicants had increases far more substantial.
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The legal action represents the latest turn in a more than 50-year-old legal battle to diversify the exam schools, and it could have ramifications for districts nationwide if the nation’s highest court rules in the plaintiffs’ favor.
Specifically, the coalition seeks to prohibit districts nationwide from using race-neutral admission criteria, such as ZIP codes and socioeconomic factors, to increase student diversity. Several districts have been experimenting or debating whether to adopt such measures for selective-admission schools as they attempt to reshape themselves into antiracist institutions.
“We hope the Supreme Court will take this case to vindicate the rights of the students who were discriminated against and keep the promise to end racial discrimination in admissions nationwide,” said Christopher Kieser, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which is representing the parent coalition.
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San Francisco temporarily replaced its merit-based admission criteria for its competitive Lowell High School with a lottery during the pandemic and is talking about changing it again to increase diversity. The Chicago Board of Education passed a resolution in December that could result in ending or revamping admission criteria for selective schools. And New York City sparked protests in recent years when it sought to overhaul admission criteria to selective schools to increase diversity.
So far, the federal district court in Boston and the First Circuit Court of Appeals have upheld the legality of BPS’ temporary policy, which is no longer being used. The district’s current admission policy, however, also relies on race-neutral criteria, grouping together applicants who reside in areas with similar socioeconomic characteristics into eight admission tiers. Seats are then awarded in rounds by each tier based on grades and test scores.
A BPS spokesperson declined to comment.
Across the nation, affirmative action is facing a murky future as the Supreme Court’s right-leaning majority has expressed skepticism about policies and practices that aim to boost opportunities for historically disadvantaged populations.
Less than a year ago, the court struck down race-based affirmative action admission policies at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. That, in turn, has prompted higher education institutions and K-12 districts to reexamine admission criteria for specialized programs as they aim to reduce their risk for litigation.
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Because of that, it is unlikely the Supreme Court has the appetite for another affirmative action case involving education, said Iván Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which has been representing civil rights organizations that have intervened in the case in support of the temporary policy.
“Review of the BLS case would be premature,” he said. “At this time, a ruling on BLS would not be helpful, particularly because schools across the country continue to respond to the recent ruling on college admissions.”
Earlier this year, a divided court decided against pursuing a case brought by a group of Asian parents who argued that race-neutral admissions to the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology, a public school in Virginia, were designed to increase the chances of Black and Latino students getting in to the detriment of Asian applicants. The policy set aside seats for a portion of students from every middle school.
The majority did not provide a reason for passing over the case. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia previously found in a split decision that the plaintiffs failed to prove a disparate impact on Asian students, noting their representation at Thomas Jefferson was still higher than other schools in the admission area.
However, two justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, disagreed.
In their dissenting opinion, Alito called the Fourth Circuit’s ruling “indefensible” and said its “reasoning is a virus that may spread if not promptly eliminated.” He then noted in the Boston exam school case in December the appeals court cited the Fourth Circuit’s opinion in rejecting the plaintiffs’ appeal.
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Alito’s argument forms a strong basis of the petition by the Boston parent coalition, which is using the same law firm as the Thomas Jefferson parents.
“Should the Court turn away this case, it will only embolden government officials to continue targeting disfavored racial groups — particularly, Asian Americans,” the petition said. “The facts of this case make it especially troubling, and the Court’s refusal to intervene would send the signal that even overtly racist behavior will not stand in the way of racial balancing by proxy.”
The parent coalition is seeking to have five students who were rejected under the temporary policy admitted to the exam schools, arguing the students would have secured seats under the former policy.
According to the petition, none of the applicants in West Roxbury, a popular neighborhood among white and Asian American families, got in with GPAs below 10, while in a predominantly Black and Latino section of Dorchester, 67 applicants got admitted with GPAs below 10.
James Vaznis can be reached at james.vaznis@globe.com. Follow him @globevaznis.