Reference no: EM133420732

Complete an IRAC for this problem:

Pembroke University is a prestigious and highly selective public institution with a long and storied history as the flagship university in the state of Olympia. It is considered to be a Public Ivy, or a public institution which offers an academic experience similar to that of an Ivy League university. Pembroke employs 40 admissions officers who read the tens of thousands of applications submitted by students hoping to join the school's undergraduate class. (For the class of 2024, there were 40,248 applicants and 2,015 admissions.) At the first stage of the admissions process, each application is read by at least one admissions officer, who rates the students along six dimensions: academic ratings, extracurricular ratings, athletic ratings, school support ratings, personal ratings, and overall ratings.

For the first five of these categories, race plays no direct role in determining an applicant's rating - although it can play an indirect role in determining a student's "personal rating" if, for example, a student of color tells a particularly compelling story about how they overcame racism to succeed academically. Race can play a role in a student's overall rating, however, through a process Pembroke refers to as "tips."

"Tips" are plus factors that might tip an applicant into Pembroke's admitted class. A student who would otherwise be rejected might be "tipped" into the pool of accepted applicants for myriad reasons, including outstanding and unusual intellectual ability, unusually appealing personal qualities, outstanding capacity for leadership, creative ability, athletic ability, legacy status, and geographic, ethnic, or economic factors. Decisions to admit an applicant are made by the full, diverse, 40-person admissions committee through which each member has one vote.

Pembroke treats each applicant as an individual, and holds an expansive view of excellence; the admissions committee looks at the whole person and considers each applicant's unique background and experiences, alongside grades and test scores, to find applicants of exceptional ability and character, who can help create a campus community that is diverse on multiple dimensions (including on academic and extracurricular interests, race, socioeconomic background, and life experiences), and who can take advantage of all that Pembroke offers and contribute to the learning and social environment for their classmates. Factors such as life experiences, overcoming adversity, or specific talents are particularly important in deciding who will be offered admission.

Race is one of many factors that Pembroke considers in evaluating each applicant as a whole person, an approach that helps create a diverse campus community where students from all walks of life have the opportunity to share ideas and learn from each other. Pembroke also uses many race-neutral means to pursue diversity-including extensive recruiting and one of the most generous financial aid policies in the country-and it has carefully studied other potential race-neutral measures, ultimately concluding that the consideration of race, among many other factors, remains necessary to attain an exceptional class that is diverse on many dimensions and central to the ability of Pembroke University to pursue its educational mission.

The overwhelming majority of applicants to Pembroke are rejected, regardless of their race. Data suggests that a sizable percentage of Pembroke's Black and Latino undergraduates received an offer of admission because of this "tips" system. According to the Pembroke plaintiff, if you group all Pembroke undergraduate applicants into deciles based on their academic record, Pembroke still rejects more than 85 percent of applicants in the top decile. But it accepts more than half of Black applicants in this elite decile and just under a third of the highest-performing Hispanic applicants.

Students for Accurate Admissions, Inc. ("SFAA") brought suit on November 17, 2020, against the President and Fellows of Pembroke University and the Board of Overseers (collectively, "Pembroke"). SFAA is a nonprofit, membership organization whose members include highly qualified students recently denied admission to schools including Pembroke, highly qualified students who plan to apply to schools such as Pembroke, and their parents. SFAA argues that Pembroke's undergraduate admissions policies and procedures have injured and continue to injure SFAA's members by intentionally and unconstitutionally discriminating against them. SFFA has at least one member ("Applicant") who applied for and was denied admission to Pembroke's 2019 entering class. Applicant is white. Applicant had a weighted GPA of 4.4839 at a public high school that U.S. News and World Report ranks as one of the top five high schools in Olympia and in the top 1 percent of all high schools nationwide. Applicant achieved a score of 2180 on the SAT I (800 Reading (Perfect) + 710 Math + 670 Writing). Applicant achieved a perfect score of 800 for SAT II Physics and a perfect score of 800 for SAT II Math. Applicant had a composite ACT score of 32. Applicant completed five Advanced Placement ("AP") courses, scoring a perfect "5" on all but one AP exam and scoring a "4" on the other. Applicant was named an AP Scholar of Distinction. While in high school, Applicant participated in numerous extracurricular and volunteer activities. Among other things, Applicant was a member of the varsity cross country team, a teaching associate for students in Latin II, completed a collegiate computer programming course, and held a part-time job. Applicant was denied the opportunity to compete for admission to Pembroke on equal footing with other applicants on the basis of race or ethnicity due to Pembroke's discriminatory admissions policies.

Please evaluate SFAA's constitutional claims. You must cite cases from class to support your answers. There is no "right" answer, but all answers must be logical and supported with case law.