Navigating his way through racial politics, education policy and U.S. Supreme Court precedent, Latham & Watkins partner Gregory Garre won a ruling this week that preserves student affirmative action at the University of Texas at Austin. There could be a counterintuitive lesson in UT Austin’s victory: To advance a liberal cause, it may help to have a lawyer with conservative bona fides.
In a 2-1 ruling issued on Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that UT didn’t violate the Fourteenth Amendment by making race a factor in its admissions process. Siding with Garre, the majority held that UT Austin’s approach—accepting all students in the top 10 percent of their high school class and then including race in a quota-free assessment of remaining applicants—was “necessary” for UT Austin to achieve a diverse student body.
