Hopwood v. Texas - Significance

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision was both heralded and decried as the end of affirmative action. Hopwood and three others had sued the University of Texas because they had been denied admission to its law school in 1992. They charged the institution with "reverse discrimination"--passing them over for admission in favor of minorities with lower test scores and grades. Although critics of affirmative action had often campaigned for an end to all "race-based preference systems," the Hopwood decision was, on paper, an assertion that the particular policy used by the University of Texas Law School violated a 1978 Supreme Court landmark ruling on affirmative action.