On Tuesday, a white man sued six Texas medical colleges in an ongoing legal battle over race-conscious admissions, accusing the colleges of discriminating against him and other rejected white and Asian men, giving them GPAs and test results. accused of supporting female, black, and Hispanic applicants with low scores. .
At the same time George Stewart filed a class action lawsuit, the conservative-majority U.S. Supreme Court is considering two cases that are likely to end the affirmative action policy.
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Hopeful students are at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, University of Texas at Austin Dell School of Medicine, McGovern School of Medicine in Houston, UT School of Medicine in Galveston, UT Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, and UT Southwestern in Dallas. medical center.
Stewart argued that the school violated the equal protection clauses of Titles VI, IX, and the Fourteenth Amendment by prioritizing “less qualified” minority applicants.
His legal effort is the latest in what the America First Legal Foundation called a “national crusade” against affirmative action. The group, founded by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to former President Donald Trump, is paired on the case with former Texas Attorney General Jonathan Mitchell, who built the state’s six-week abortion ban. is.
Officials from McGovern Medical School, Galveston Medical School and Texas Tech University Medical School declined to comment on the pending lawsuit. The other three agencies did not return requests for comment.
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Stewart said he was able to continue applying to medical school and was ready to do so, but he does not believe he will be accepted.
“Because Mr. Stewart is a white male, the racial and gender preferences established and enforced by the defendants prevent Mr. Stewart from competing on equal terms with other applicants for admission to these medical schools. We have,” the lawsuit said.
Despite having a 3.96 grade point average at UT-Austin, a score of 511 out of 528 on the qualifying exam known as the MCAT, and interning and volunteering at several medical schools and research institutes, Stewart earned his first year in Texas. All six state schools failed Stewart. Attorneys said in the lawsuit.
This refusal prompted Stewart to request enrollment data from each school. According to the lawsuit, he learned that more than 450 “less qualified” minority students were accepted over him, including some with a GPA of 2.82 and an MCAT score of 495.
Records also showed that admitted black and Hispanic students had lower median and mean GPAs and test scores than white and Asian students, lawyers said in the lawsuit. Data points for women were similarly low when compared to men, they added.
Attorneys for America First singled out UTMB in court documents, specifically expressing their intention to recognize underrepresented and economically disadvantaged students in order to become more representative of the Texas demographic. claimed to be.
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Similar to the case currently pending in the Supreme Court, Stewart argued against the use of race in admissions decisions, as long as the school considered other factors for each applicant, the 2003 case of Grutter v. Bollinger. trying to overturn the judgment of
Stewart filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District, based in Lubbock, Texas, naming all six schools and their presidents, deans, and admissions officers. Stewart is asking the court to ban race-conscious admissions, rely instead on colorblindness and a “gender-neutral policy,” and appoint a court ward to oversee the school’s admissions office.
This is the second case of affirmative action America First has pursued in Texas in recent months. September Associate Professor, University of Austin sued the Texas A&M University system Advocated racism on behalf of white and Asian faculty candidates in a fellowship program aimed at improving diversity on the College Station campus.
The assistant professor dismissed the case in December, according to court records. He has since refiled amended complaints against Texas A&M and several of its top officials. Texas Tribune reported.
