Sotomayor Denies Emergency Bid in Elite NYC School Admissions Case

Justice Sonia Sotomayor has denied an emergency bid from a Brooklyn mother who sought to have her Asian-American son admitted to Stuyvesant High School. The request is tied to a lawsuit alleging that New York City's revised admissions requirements intentionally discriminate against Asian students to increase enrollment among Black and Hispanic students.

Yi Fang Chen filed the lawsuit in April, asserting that the city's policy violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. Chen's son was denied admission to Stuyvesant, despite scoring 558 on the Specialized High School Admissions Test, just three points below the cutoff. The lawsuit contends that the cutoff score was raised, in part, due to a change that reserves 20% of admissions for students deemed "economically disadvantaged."

This change was part of an expansion of the Discovery program initiated in 2018 under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio. The program initially targeted students from middle schools where at least 60% of students were considered economically disadvantaged. However, the lawsuit points to internal communications that attorneys for Chen allege demonstrate an intent to increase Black and Hispanic enrollment at the expense of Asian students.

According to the lawsuit, no student admitted through the Discovery program this year scored higher than 495, a mark significantly lower than the cutoff for students admitted without the economic disadvantage consideration. The plaintiffs argue that although nearly three-quarters of Asian-American students in New York City come from low-income families, many attend middle schools that did not meet the 60% Economic Need Index threshold, effectively excluding them from the program.

"Yi Fang Chen’s son was denied a seat at Stuyvesant because the City turned a program meant to help economically disadvantaged students into a tool for racial engineering—one that actually excluded disadvantaged children throughout the city," stated Dean McGee, an attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, representing the plaintiff. "Equal protection means treating kids as individuals, not as demographic statistics."

Sotomayor did not provide an explanation for her decision to deny the emergency bid, which is part of a case currently pending in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. The legal challenge continues to question the fairness and equity of the city's school admissions policies.