Supreme Court turns away affirmative action dispute over Virginia high school's admissions policies

Washington — The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away a challenge to the admissions policy at a prestigious Virginia high school that administrators say is designed to mitigate socioeconomic and geographic barriers for prospective students.

The decision from the high court not to take up the appeal by a group of parents challenging the admissions policies at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology leaves intact a lower court decision upholding the criteria, which school officials argue is race neutral. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit concluded last year that the goal of the program is to foster diversity among the school's student body, though the parents that brought the case said it impermissibly discriminated against Asian-American students. 

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the court's decision not to hear the case. In a dissenting opinion joined by Thomas, Alito said the admissions model adopted by the high school "has been trumpeted to potential replicators as a blueprint for evading" the Supreme Court's affirmative action decision.