Lawsuit challenges new admissions policy at elite Va. school
Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Erin Wilcox speaks at a news conference outside the federal courthouse, Wednesday, March 10, 2021, in Alexandria, Va., where her organization filed a lawsuit against Fairfax County's school board, alleging discrimination against Asian Americans over its revised admissions process for the elite Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The Pacific Legal Foundation's lawsuit against the Fairfax County school board was prompted by the school system's decision to overhaul the admissions process at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The Fairfax County school board voted last year to revise the admissions process and eliminate a standardized test that had been a key part of the evaluation process. The lawsuit comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is weighing whether to hear a long-running legal case against Harvard University over whether its admissions polices discriminate against Asian Americans. AdWilcox said that the rules governing K-12 schools are different than those governing colleges, but she acknowledged that a Supreme Court ruling on the Harvard case could affect the TJ lawsuit.