Special Admission of the "Culturally Deprived" to Law School

Abstract

PAGE 232 PAGE 232 THE BLA CK LA W JO URNA L THE BLACK LA WJOURNAL SPECIAL ADMISSION OF THE CULTURALLY DEPRIVED TO LAW SCHOOL By LINO A. GRAGLIA* In the past few years many law school faculties have adopted a policy of granting ad- missions to a limited number of applicants who do not meet the school's usual minimum standards. This policy is often described as applicable to the culturally deprived, but cultural deprivation is seldom defined and neither a cultural opportunity test nor an economic status test is employed. The purpose of the policy, freely recognized within the law schools, is to increase Negro enrollment and, in some instances and usually to a lesser degree, enrollment of certain ethnic groups such as Mexican-Americans or Puerto Ricans. This has been the effect of the policy in operation.' At least one law school has gone further and directly established racial and ethnic group quotas.' The number of applicants admitted to a law school partially on the basis of racial or ethnic considerations cannot usually be precisely determined. The admissions committee in most law schools has a range of discretion; that is, applicants who do not quite meet the minimum standards for automatic ad- mission (nearly always a combination of college grade point average and score on the Law School Admission Test) may be ad- mitted if their records show some exceptional- ly favorable factor, such as markedly higher grades in later college years. Under the new policy, all or nearly all Negro applicants fall- ing within this range are admitted. These are not usually considered special admissions. Other Negro applicants falling below this nor- mal range of discretion are also admitted. As to these, the only minimum objective standard either established or applied may be a college degree where this is otherwise required. Only this latter group can be readily identified or recognized as specially admitted, although all or nearly all Negro applicants may be ad- mitted. Because no cultural deprivation test is in fact employed, Negroes may be specially admitted even though they are of middle class background, have professional parents, or otherwise appear to have had average or above average cultural opportunities. Opposition to a policy so obviously well- intentioned and based on humanitarian con- siderations is no labor of love. I feel, however, that the justifications for the policy have not been so much analyzed and argued as simply asserted or assumed, that the principle in- volved is objectionable and the factual premises questionable. Special admission standards for Negroes will, I fear, disserve the cause of Negro equality, impair educa- tional quality, and result in deviation of the schools from their educational function. In any event, because opposing considerations have not been adequately canvassed and weighed, further discussion seems desirable. The basic principle underlying the new ad- *Rex G. Baker and Edna Heflin Baker Professor in Constitutional Law, University of Texas. B.A. 1952, City College of New York; LL.B. 1954, Columbia University. Member, District of Columbia and New York Bars. I. See generally Comment, Current Legal Education of Minorities: A Survey, 19 BUFFALO L. REv. 639 (1970). 2. Askin, The Case for Compensatory Treatment, 24 RUTGERS L. REV. 65 (1970) (editor's headnote).