Affirmative action in college admissions will again be in front of the SCOTUS next year.

As the Supreme Court closed shop for the summer yesterday, four Justices agreed that the Fisher v. UT-Austin case should be brought back for another look.
http://chronicle.com/article/What-to-Expect-as-the-Supreme/231245/?cid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

UT-Austin has been using a 10% rule: the top ten percent of graduates from every high school in the state are guaranteed admission to the Lone STart State's flagship institution (where yours truly once taught business law, by the way).

Ms. Fisher, denied admission, challenged the practice.  The federal district court granted summary judgment in UT's favor and the case worked its way up to the Supremes.  In 2012 they held that strict scrutiny needed to be applied to review of the admissions policy and remanded the case for the lower courts to take a second gander.

In the succeeding two years the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit once again blessed the UT scheme.  The lawyers for Ms Fisher, determined I presume to wipe affirmative action from the face of American law, have again persuaded the requisite four Justices that the lower courts failed to do their strict scrutiny of the admissions policy and that the Court must reexamine its earlier ruling.

Since Justice Kegan as Solicitor General weighed in on the case back in the day, she has again recused herself, so that the conservatives on the Court will come back to the case with an advantage over their liberal colleagues.