WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to review a legal challenge to Montgomery County Public Schools’ magnet middle school admissions policies in Maryland, raising questions about whether race-neutral reforms designed to expand educational opportunities for disadvantaged students violate constitutional protections against racial discrimination.
The case, Association for Education Fairness v. Montgomery County Board of Education, challenges changes made to the district’s admissions process for highly selective middle school magnet programs. The Supreme Court’s Oct. 19 decision to review the case follows rulings by two lower courts dismissing the lawsuit.
According to a statement from the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) and several community organizations, Montgomery County Public Schools implemented the reforms after advocates spent “years to persuade the school district to remove longstanding barriers to equal access to its magnet programs.”
The coalition includes the Montgomery County branch of the NAACP, Asian American Youth Leadership, Empowerment, and Development (AALEAD), Montgomery County Progressive Asian American Network (MoCoPAAN), CASA Inc. and Identity Inc.
These organizations argued that the previous admissions system created barriers for students whose families had limited knowledge of the application process or fewer resources to navigate it.
Under the previous system, students were considered for admission through referrals. The revised process introduced universal screening of fifth-grade students, allowing more students to be considered for advanced academic opportunities.
The reforms also account for school poverty levels when evaluating math and reading test scores and use a lottery to select students who meet qualifying academic criteria.
On March 8, 2024, five Montgomery County community organizations filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, defending the revised admissions process.
The organizations argued that universal screening, local comparisons of test scores and lottery-based admissions expanded opportunities for students who had historically faced barriers to selective academic programs.
According to the brief, approximately 8,000 fifth-grade students in the Downcounty region were screened in 2019, compared with the 700 to 800 students considered under the previous referral-only process. This represented roughly a tenfold increase in the number of students screened for magnet program eligibility.
The brief also highlighted disparities in access to advanced educational programs. Black and Latino students represented approximately 53% of Montgomery County Public Schools’ student population during the 2018-19 academic year but accounted for only a small percentage of students admitted to some magnet programs.
According to the organizations’ brief, the reforms changed the demographics of students admitted to the magnet programs. In 2021, Black and Latino students combined represented approximately 33% of students admitted to Clemente Middle School and 41% of those admitted to Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, the county’s two Upcounty magnet programs.
The brief also reported that Black and Latino students combined accounted for approximately 37% and 40% of admissions to Takoma Park and Eastern middle schools, respectively, compared with 23% and 31% in 2018.
The Association for Education Fairness challenged the district’s admissions policy in federal court, alleging that the revised process unlawfully discriminated against Asian American students.
The association, represented by Pacific Legal Foundation, contends that the policies disadvantage Asian American applicants by evaluating students against peers attending schools with similar poverty levels.
In July 2022, the district court dismissed the amended complaint after finding that it failed to sufficiently allege disparate impact and discriminatory intent. The Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal Feb. 3, 2026.
In their March 2024 brief, the community organizations argued that the revised admissions process did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The organizations maintained that universal screening, local comparisons of test scores and a lottery involving students meeting objective academic criteria constituted a lawful, race-neutral admissions process.
The brief also disputed allegations that the reforms disproportionately harmed Asian American students, citing admissions data showing that Asian American students continued to secure places in magnet programs at rates exceeding their share of the applicant pool.
Attorneys representing the community organizations expressed disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to review the challenge but maintained that the revised admissions policies were lawful.
The Supreme Court has agreed to consider whether plaintiffs challenging a facially race-neutral admissions policy as discriminatory must establish that the targeted racial group experienced an aggregate disparate impact relative to its share of the applicant pool.
The case places the legal standard for evaluating discrimination claims involving race-neutral admissions policies before the justices, following the lower courts’ dismissal of the lawsuit.
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