Volume 23, Number 1 · February 5, 1976
The DeFunis Case: The Right to Go to Law School
By Ronald Dworkin
DeFunis versus Odegaard and the University of Washington: The University Admissions Case, The Record
edited by Ann Fagan Ginger
Oceana Publications, 3 vols pp., $70.00
In 1945 a black man named Sweatt applied to the University of Texas Law School, but was refused admission because state law provided that only whites could attend. The Supreme Court declared that this law violated Sweatt's rights under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which provides that no state shall deny any man the equal protection of its laws.[1] In 1970 a Jew named DeFunis applied to the University of Washington Law School; he was rejected although his test scores and college grades were such that he would have been admitted if he were black or Filipino or a Chicano or an American Indian. DeFunis asked the Supreme Court to declare that the Washington practice, which offered less exacting standards to minority groups, violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment as well.[2]
Review, 7226 words
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