Page:Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, 579 U.S. (2016) (slip opinion).pdf/54

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Hispanic child of successful professionals in Dallas”); ibid. (claiming that privileged minorities “have great potential for serving as a ‘bridge’ in promoting cross-racial under­standing, as well as in breaking down racial stereotypes”); ibid. (intimating that the underprivileged minority stu­dents admitted under the Top Ten Percent Plan “rein­forc[e]” “stereotypical assumptions”); Tr. of Oral Arg. 43– 45 (Oct. 10, 2012) (“[A]lthough the percentage plan certainly helps with minority admissions, by and large, the— the minorities who are admitted tend to come from segregated, racially-identifiable schools,” and “we want minorities from different backgrounds”). Thus, the Top Ten Percent Law is faulted for admitting the wrong kind of African-American and Hispanic students.

The Fifth Circuit embraced this argument on remand, endorsing UT’s claimed need to enroll minorities from “high-performing,” “majority-white” high schools. 758 F. 3d, at 653. According to the Fifth Circuit, these more privileged minorities “bring a perspective not captured by” students admitted under the Top Ten Percent Law, who often come “from highly segregated, underfunded, and underperforming schools.” Ibid. For instance, the court determined, privileged minorities “can enrich the diversity of the student body in distinct ways” because such students have “higher levels of preparation and better pro­spects for admission to UT Austin’s more demanding colleges” than underprivileged minorities. Id., at 654; see also Fisher, 631 F. 3d, at 240, n. 149 (concluding that the Top Ten Percent Plan “widens the ‘credentials gap’ between minority and non-minority students at the Uni­versity, which risks driving away matriculating minor­ity students from difficult majors like business or the sciences”).

Remarkably, UT now contends that petitioner has “fab­ricat[ed]” the argument that it is seeking affluent minori­ties. Brief for Respondents 2. That claim is impossible to