UPDATED: University of Texas at Austin President Bill Powers has responded to the U.S. Supreme Court decision to hear an affirmative action case that argues the university's race-conscious admissions policy violates the rights of white students.

A court case involving two University of Texas applicants who believe they were denied admission because they're white threatens to reinvigorate an ideological skirmish that peaked in the late 1990s. The first lawsuit of its kind brought against a university since a pair of landmark U.S. Supreme Court decisions in 2003, Fisher v. Texas has observers everywhere wondering if the state's troubled history with race-based admissions makes it the ideal incubator for the next round of affirmative action battles.