The 1996 case of Hopwood v. Texas overturned race-based admissions policies at public universities in Texas. The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of four plaintiffs who alleged that they were denied admission to the University of Texas School of Law because they were white.

After the ruling, the Legislature looked for other ways to ensure diversity at public universities. They came up with what is known as the Top 10 Percent Rule, which requires public universities to automatically accept students who graduated within the top 10 percent of their high school classes. The rule was passed into law in 1997. It was amended in 2009 to allow UT-Austin to cap top 10-percent admissions at 75 percent of the incoming freshman class.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively overturned the Hopwood decision by affirming that the University of Michigan School of Law had the right to use affirmative action in its admissions policies. That case, Grutter v. Bollinger, is now being challenged by two white female students who were denied admission by UT. The D.C.-based Project for Fair Representation is funding the students' defense in the case, called Fisher v. Texas, and hope it will force the Supreme Court to revisit its decision in Grutter. The Fifth Circuit heard oral arguments for the case in August 2010.