| Hopwood v. Texas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Court | United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit |
| Full case name | Cheryl J. Hopwood, et al v. State of Texas, et al |
| Decided | March 18, 1996 |
| Citations | 78 F.3d 932; 64 USLW 2591; 107 Ed. Law Rep. 552 |
| Case history | |
| Prior history | 861 F. Supp. 551 (W.D. Tex. 1994) |
| Subsequent history | Abrogated by Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003), itself abrogated by Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College, No. 20-1199, 600 U.S. ___ (2023). |
| Court membership | |
| Judges sitting | Jerry Edwin Smith, Jacques L. Wiener, Jr., Harold R. DeMoss Jr. |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Smith, joined by DeMoss |
| Concurrence | Wiener |
| Laws applied | |
| Equal Protection Clause | |
Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996),[1] was the first successful legal challenge to a university's affirmative action policy in student admissions since Regents of the University of California v. Bakke.[2] In Hopwood, four white plaintiffs who had been rejected from University of Texas at Austin's School of Law challenged the institution's admissions policy on equal protection grounds and prevailed. After seven years as a precedent in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Hopwood decision was abrogated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2003.[3]
- ^ Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996).
- ^ Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265 (1978)
- ^ Grutter v. Bollinger, 539 U.S. 306 (2003)