# Fisher v. Texas I and II The two-round case that tightened the screws on affirmative action without quite killing it — and the dry run for the operation that eventually did. Brought on behalf of Abigail Fisher, a white applicant rejected by the University of Texas at Austin, the litigation was engineered by [[Edward Blum]], the same legal entrepreneur who would go on to win [[Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard]]. The case reached the Supreme Court twice. ## Fisher I (2013) and Fisher II (2016) **Fisher I** (decided June 24, 2013, 7–1, opinion by [[Justice Anthony Kennedy]]) did not resolve the merits. Instead, it vacated the lower court's ruling and held that courts reviewing race-conscious admissions must apply strict scrutiny rigorously and independently — they may not defer to a university's good-faith assertion that its program is narrowly tailored. It sent the case back to the Fifth Circuit with a demanding standard. **Fisher II** (decided June 23, 2016, 4–3, again by Kennedy) then surprised many observers by **upholding** UT-Austin's limited use of race within its holistic "Top Ten Percent" framework. The narrow margin reflected unusual circumstances: Justice [[Elena Kagan]] had recused, and Justice [[Antonin Scalia]] had died months earlier, leaving a seven-member Court. It was Kennedy's first and only vote to uphold an affirmative-action plan. ## Significance *Fisher* is the hinge between [[Grutter v. Bollinger]] (2003) and [[Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard]] (2023). It preserved the diversity rationale while ratcheting up the strict-scrutiny standard that universities had to meet — narrowing the doctrine even as it survived. And it was [[Edward Blum]]'s instructive loss: having failed to get the Court to overrule *Grutter* through a white-plaintiff Equal Protection vehicle, Blum retooled, recruited Asian American plaintiffs, and built the *Students for Fair Admissions* cases that finally ended race-conscious admissions in 2023. *Fisher II* was the last time the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action in higher education. ## See Also - [[Grutter v. Bollinger]] — The precedent *Fisher* narrowed but preserved - [[Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard]] — Blum's eventual win - [[Edward Blum]] — The litigation architect behind both - [[Affirmative Action]] — The regime in its final decade