News Archive
Professor Orentlicher Files Amicus Brief in Affirmative Action Case
12/04/2015
The case, Abigail Noel Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, et al., in which Professor David Orentlicher filed an amicus curiae brief, will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court on December 9. The brief supports neither party in the case, which surrounds Texas’s affirmative action policy for college admissions. Professor Orentlicher examines the incentives of an important feature of the Texas college admissions policy--its great emphasis on class rank to choose among applicants. Reliance on class rank creates important incentives for greater socioeconomic opportunity in lower-income communities. As a result, class rank policies offer much potential to address the problem of economic inequality in the U.S. The brief was mentioned in the Wall Street Journal's live blog during the proceedings.
A former elected official, Professor Orentlicher served in the Indiana House of Representatives from 2002 through 2008. He is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor at IU McKinney and co-director of the Hall Center for Law and Health. He also has taught at Princeton University and the University of Chicago Law School. He earned degrees in law and medicine at Harvard and specializes as well in health care law and ethics.
