Hopwood v. Texas

Cheryl Hopwood was one of several non-minority students rejected when she applied for admission to the University of Texas Law School in 1992. Hopwood was about 30 at the time, and had once successfully applied to an Ivy League school for undergraduate study, but was forced to decline because she could not afford it. Instead she attended community colleges in Indiana and California, where she earned a 3.8 grade-point average (GPA) while working 20 to 30 hours a week and doing volunteer work. Hopwood eventually became a certified public accountant, and married. Her first daughter was born with severe health problems, which required her to spend a great deal of time caring for her.

Hopwood's coplaintiffs in the suit against the University of Texas had less distressing circumstances. They were David Rogers, Douglas Wade Carvell, and Kenneth Elliott. All had been rejected by the admissions committee because of either poor test scores or poor academic performance in their undergraduate studies. All four had each received letters from an Austin lawyer, who had obtained the names of those passed over by the admissions committee.