The University of North Carolina and civil rights advocates urged the US Supreme Court on Monday to steer clear of a case designed to end racial affirmative action at state colleges and universities.
Lawyers for North Carolina, led by state Solicitor General Ryan Park, contend the challengers are trying to “short-circuit” the usual judicial process by asking the nine justices to hear the UNC dispute, along with a similar case against Harvard, even though a regional US appellate court has yet to rule on the state school dispute.
North Carolina also stressed that the Supreme Court has upheld the limited use of race in admissions to enrich campus diversity for more than four decades, most recently in 2016.
