[by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.08]The U.S. Supreme Court says the University of Texas [00:04.92]can consider race when deciding which students to admit. [00:11.40]The case was one of the most closely watched [00:16.09]because it deals with the issue of affirmative action. [00:21.03]Affirmative action is a policy designed to help those who suffer from discrimination, [00:29.64]especially regarding employment or education. [00:34.64]The decision has nationwide implications [00:39.80]because other American universities use similar affirmative action policies. [00:47.84]However, eight U.S. states do not allow race to be used [00:54.54]when considering public college admissions. [00:59.52]The states are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan, Nebraska, [01:08.64]New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington. [01:13.92]By law, the University of Texas guarantees admission [01:20.56]to students who graduate in the top 10 percent of their high school class. [01:28.64]But when considering applications from about 25 percent of students, [01:35.28]the University of Texas also considers the student's race, along with other factors. [01:45.04]The 4-3 Supreme Court decision means the university's admissions policy can remain. [01:55.92]Abigail Fisher, a white woman, filed the case against the University of Texas. [02:04.92]She said the school denied her admission based on her race. [02:12.49]Fisher's grades were not good enough [02:16.81]to get her automatic admission under the top 10 percent rule. [02:23.68]She was denied admission to the University of Texas in 2008. [02:30.53]When she found out that minority students with lower grades than hers were accepted, [02:39.44]she sued the school for discrimination. [02:43.31]The University of Texas said Fisher would not have been admitted [02:49.80]with or without race as a factor. [02:54.32]The university says its race-based selection policies [03:00.44]are necessary to maintain a diverse campus community. [03:06.76]Fisher's attorneys argued that the top 10 percent program is enough [03:14.47]to make sure that adequate minority students are included in the admissions process. [03:23.20]Justice Anthony Kennedy gave the majority opinion for the court. [03:29.88]"The university has thus met its burden of showing [03:35.80]that the admissions policy it used... was narrowly tailored," he wrote. [03:43.48]Kennedy also said that "it remains an enduring challenge [03:49.44]to our nation's education system to reconcile the pursuit of diversity [03:56.53]with the constitutional promise of equal treatment and dignity." [04:04.20]Three other judges - Chief Justice John Roberts, [04:09.08]Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas – disagreed. [04:16.27]Alito said he thought the decision was an example of "affirmative action gone berserk." [04:25.12]He said he felt the university had relied [04:29.49]"on a series of unsupported and noxious racial assumptions." [04:36.96]In a separate dissent, Thomas expressed his view that the U.S. Constitution [04:43.78]makes it illegal to use race as part of the admissions process in higher education. [04:51.65]U.S. President Barack Obama praised the Supreme Court's decision [04:58.48]for upholding "the basic notion that diversity is an important value in our society, [05:06.68]and that this country should provide a high quality education [05:11.72]to all our young people, regardless of their background." [05:17.96]I'm Bryan Lynn. [05:19.44]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM