The Application of Scholarly Knowledge: Amici Use of Research in Fisher I

• In Event: 68.047 - Race and Gender Diversity in Education Law and Policy

Abstract

“Friends-of-the-court” (amici curiae) have filed briefs that use educational research and other types of non-legal evidence to inform the Supreme Court’s deliberations in a series of cases that address equal educational opportunity. In Fisher v. University of Texas, the most recent of these cases, 92 amici briefs were filed the first time the case reached the Court in 2012. In this study, we ask: what arguments did amici use non-legal evidence to support and what are the patterns of arguments by supporting side and category of amici? Findings have implications for expanding the practical and theoretical understandings of research use in law, an arena that has important consequences for educational practice and for realizing the promise of equal educational opportunity.

Authors

• Patricia Marin, Michigan State University

• Liliana M. Garces, University of Texas at Austin

• Catherine L. Horn, University of Houston