The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on October 19, 2026, to hear an appeal by the Association for Education Fairness against the Montgomery County Board of Education over middle school admissions policies. Challengers claim a pandemic-era lottery system for elite magnet programs discriminates against Asian American applicants. Lower courts dismissed the suit after finding no evidence of disparate impact, as Asian American admission rates exceeded applicant proportions. The justices will decide by June 2027 whether plaintiffs must prove statistical harm to pursue intentional discrimination claims.
Supreme Court review of the case
- ▪The Supreme Court's Montgomery County case centers on the technical evidentiary requirement of whether lower courts can dismiss claims of intentional racial discrimination if a policy does not cause a disproportionate statistical harm to a protected group
- ▪The U.S. Supreme Court agreed on October 19, 2026, to hear an appeal by the parent coalition Association for Education Fairness challenging the lottery admissions policy for four elite public magnet middle schools in Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County magnet school policy
- ▪Montgomery County Public Schools introduced a lottery admissions policy during the 2020-2022 COVID-19 pandemic to assign qualified middle school applicants to four magnet programs, including Takoma Park Middle School and Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School
- ▪The Montgomery County selection process for magnet middle schools screens all middle school applicants for academic potential and ranks test performance relative to peers from elementary schools with similar family income and poverty levels before running a lottery
Parent coalition legal challenges
- ▪The Association for Education Fairness also challenged a discontinued 2017 Montgomery County magnet school program that used student outreach and cognitive testing
- ▪The Pacific Legal Foundation represents the Association for Education Fairness in challenging the Montgomery County Board of Education's magnet school entrance policies
Legal arguments over racial discrimination
- ▪The Association for Education Fairness alleged that ranking test scores against peers from similar poverty levels disadvantages Asian American students because they are clustered in high-performing, low-poverty elementary schools
- ▪Attorneys for the parent coalition, the Association for Education Fairness, argued to the Supreme Court that the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment applies to individuals rather than racial groups, asserting that racial balancing constitutes racial discrimination
- ▪Lawyers for the Montgomery County Board of Education argued in court filings that the board's lottery system is race-neutral and that charges of intentional discrimination require proving race was the only explanation for an outcome
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